Well, it looks like the avian flu has made another appearance in Texas. A supplier to Pilgrim's Pride had to destroy 24,000 chickens at the farm where the infection surfaced.
The reporter cites a 3.4% drop in the company's stock price, but surely there must something else tied to that -- perhaps fears that the infection will spread, or other news of adverse conditions. Twenty four thousand chickens down and a farm that's being fumigated doesn't amount to much on the broader market. From the USDA, here's a report on chicken production in Texas.
Note that the numbers are in thousand head. So in 2003, there were slightly over six hundred million chickens produced in Texas, and around 8 billion others in the rest of the USA.
Posted by jeffreyb at May 28, 2004 11:15 AM