Bird flu strikes again

This month's bird flu outbreak, located northwest of Warsaw, will drive down the price of poultry, experts warned this week. "The outbreak will not bring about a big fall in production but will cause a drop in price of around five percent," said Professor Roman Urban, of the Institute of Agriculture and Food Economics - National Research Institute (IERiGŻ-PIB).

The deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza was found in two areas near the city of Płock, some 80 km outside of Warsaw. Veterinarians culled more than 10,000 birds to help prevent further outbreaks and established a three-kilometer protection zone, a 10-km surveillance zone and a further buffer zone around them. There are strict controls on movement in the protection and surveillance zones, and all poultry must be kept indoors.

Officials claimed migrating ducks, geese or swans were likely to have brought the virus to Poland. Last year's outbreak in the northern city of Toruń was carried in wild swans.

IERiGŻ-PIB's Urban warned that it is impossible to predict the ramifications of further outbreaks. It would be dependent on the reaction of European consumers, but he said that he would at least expect exports to grow at a slower rate.

The Warsaw Stock Exchange was relatively gentle to the only listed poultry company Indykpol, with a three-percent drop in its share value last Monday, the first day of trading following the news of the outbreak.

Urban said that there was not enough data yet to assess the losses to Polish poultry producers but last year these ran to zł.600 million.