Tesco says bird flu scare hit poultry sales

UK - The biggest retailer in the country, Tesco, said on Tuesday its poultry sales fell 5 percent when the first case of bird flu was confirmed in Britain earlier this month.

The hit came in the week when a wild swan was found dead in Scotland from the lethal H5N1 strain of bird flu, Tesco Chief Executive Terry Leahy told a press conference following the company's annual results.

The government confirmed on April 6 that the virulent strain had been found in the mute swan, making it the 14th country in the European Union to find the disease in its territory.

"It was the week before Easter too so we had a lot of fresh turkeys coming into the business. We actually honoured all of the orders and took all the product -- some retailers I'm told cancelled orders.

"But it sold through okay, so we didn't have a big problem selling it 10 days later," he added.

Source: Reuters

26 April 2006