Thai chicken exporters hit hard by latest bird flu outbreak - THAILAND - Thailand's latest bird flu outbreak has hit two major listed chicken exporters hard. Charoen Pokphand Foods shares fell 3.65 percent to 4.22 baht/share, and General Food Poultry Thai Company fell 10.67 percent to 13.4 baht/share.

No new outbreaks had been reported at poultry and layer farms, most of which have been converted into closed-environment farms with strict safety barriers against external contamination. About 11,000 poultry farms and 1,700 layer farms nationwide have passed bio-security standards set by the Thai government.

However, the government has expressed the need to put effective controls on native chicken farms and free-range duck farms through mandatory registrations for all. Most of these smaller farms operated as open-air facilities that could easily be contaminated from the outside.

So far, 400,000 native chickens raised by 20,000 farmers, have been registered with the government. However, 600,000 native chickens and 2,000 flocks of free-range birds remained outside state control and monitoring, according to government estimates.

Meanwhile, Thailand's leading chicken exporter, Saha Farms Company, has criticised the government's handling of bird flu, calling for an outright ban on unregistered small farms. So far, the government has not commented on this issue.

The latest outbreak was also found at small, native chicken farms, not at facilities raising poultry for export, according to industry reports.

Source: eFeedLink - 13th July 2005