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SAO PAULO, Mar 11 (AP): Brazil's chicken industry, the world's largest, is cutting down production and laying off workers as worldwide consumption drops on fears of a bird flu epidemic, local media and analysts said this week.
While the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu hasn't been found in Brazil, the country's huge chicken industry already is feeling ramifications from the disease.
In less than a week, three chicken meat processors have announced they were either going to temporarily cease operations or cancel investments in production.
Seara Alimentos said Thursday that it would lay off more than 220 workers in its Santa Catarina unit, according to local press reports.
Aurora Alimentos said Monday it would postpone investments of 100 million Brazilian reals (US$46.2 million; euro38.7 million) in chicken production this year because of bird flu fears in Aurora's main markets - Europe, the Middle East and South Africa.
Last week, one of Brazil's largest chicken exporters, Avipal, said it will suspend operations for the month of April to lower chicken stocks. The company said it made the decision because of a drop in worldwide consumption due to the spread of bird flu in Asia, North Africa and Europe.
Brazil is the world's largest chicken producer and exporter, selling nearly 3 million metric tons (3.3 million tons) of chicken to world markets in 2005.
But the country's chicken exports fell in February to 190,300 metric tons (209,770 tons), compared to 206,600 metric tons (227,740 tons) in January.
Meanwhile, Indonesia's health minister promised to work harder to protect people from bird flu after two young children died of the H5N1 virus, raising the country's toll to 22.
"We will carry out intensive rapid diagnosis of patients suspected of having the disease," Siti Fadilah Supari told reporters late Friday, after tests came back positive for a 3-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl who died last week.
Both were from Central Java province and apparently became ill after coming into contact with sick chickens.
The H5N1 strain of the virus has killed or forced the culling of more than 140 million chickens and ducks across Asia since 2003, and has recently spread to Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
Ninety-seven people also have died, two-thirds of them in Indonesia and Vietnam, according to WHO.
Though health experts say bird flu remains difficult for humans to catch, they fear it could mutate and set off a flu pandemic that could kill millions of people worldwide.
Indonesia has been criticized for not acting fast enough to quell the spread of the disease when it first appeared in chickens three years ago.
The government has said it can do little more than vaccinate poultry stocks - arguing the internationally recommended policy of slaughtering all chickens and ducks in affected areas would be too costly.
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