06/07/06 Bird flu effects

Bird Flu Effects I just read an article on the effects bird flu might have on the beef industry. I'm Jeff Keane I'll be back right after this with some comments. Diseases can be devastating to animal industries and they have been over the years, but usually these diseases only affect one species at a time. The disease that is getting all the press and attention now is avian influenza  bird flu. The virus has caused the death of about 200 million birds around the world, so I was interested by the Doug McInnis article in Beef Magazine on how the bird flu would affect the beef industry. So far cattle have not been susceptible to the influenza strain H5N1, so that poses minimal threat to the beef industry. Consumer fear of eating poultry causing a drop in production could relate to a drop in soybean and corn prices resulting in cheaper cattle feedlot rations. Consumers backing off from poultry consumption would leave more meat protein dollars to be spent on beef. About the only real negative for the beef industry brought out in the article was if the bird flu virus mutated enough for human-to-human transmission and caused a pandemic then the loss of global economy and closed borders would cause huge economic problems for the beef industry. I think if we get to that point a poor beef industry economy might not be the biggest worry we would have. I'm Jeff Keane. Beef May 2006