Poultry

Four years ago, Andrew Meeks literally bet the farm on chickens. Now he fears he made a losing bet. His three massive chicken houses are empty, and a "For Sale" sign has sprouted out front. Meeks, a contract chicken farmer, borrowed nearly half a million dollars to refurbish his 25-acre farm, putting up as collateral his home, the farm and virtually everything else he owns. But the company that provided his chickens and paid him to raise the birds canceled his contract.

Just when you thought you could scratch bird flu off your list of things to worry about in 2009, the deadly H5N1 virus has resurfaced in poultry in Hong Kong for the first time in six years, reinforcing warnings that the threat of a human pandemic isn't over. India, Bangladesh, Vietnam and mainland China also experienced new outbreaks in December. During the same period, four new human cases -- in Egypt, Cambodia and Indonesia -- were reported to the World Health Organization.

In the run-up to a ballot initiative that would regulate the treatment of farm animals, an animal rights group has released footage showing egg-laying hens crammed into filthy cages, while, nearby, discarded birds are left to die in piles of corpses. The footage, the latest by animal rights activists working undercover at factory farms, is intended to boost support for Proposition 2.

Tyson Foods will no longer use antibiotics to raise chicken that is sold fresh in stores and will launch a $70-million advertising campaign to tout the shift, the nation's largest meat producer said Tuesday. The company said fresh chicken raised without antibiotics was shipped to stores Monday and would be sold beginning this week. "We're providing mainstream consumers with products they want," Tyson Chief Executive Richard L. Bond said.

Seeking to reassure people that chicken is safe to eat, companies that raise chickens said Thursday that they would test every flock for bird flu before the birds are slaughtered. Companies that account for more than 90% of the nearly 10 billion chickens produced in 2005 in the U.S. have signed up for the testing program and said more were expected to follow, according to the National Chicken Council, a trade group that represents producers.

Has rotisserie chicken, once the darling of the grocery store, lost its sizzle? The ready-cooked birds flew off grocers' shelves in the 1990s, but sales have begun leveling off, industry estimates show. A growing number of grocers worry that customers are getting a little bored of the chickens, even in lemon pepper or barbecue flavors, and in response they are throwing new meats on the skewer. Coming soon: rotisserie pork loins and beef.

Responding to fears of a second avian influenza outbreak this year, health officials in the southern Iraqi city of Amarah said Thursday that they had ordered hundreds of chickens slaughtered, cordoned off the town and begun disinfecting vehicles leaving the area. A hospital official in Amarah said that although no human cases of the virus had been discovered, at least two chickens had tested positive.

Israel detected its first cases of H5N1 bird flu, saying the virus had killed thousands of turkeys and chickens on two farms. Agriculture Ministry officials said tens of thousands of fowl in the infected areas and their surroundings would be culled and the carcasses would be buried. Israel was also testing dead fowl found in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Russia, the biggest foreign buyer of American chicken, halted the imports in a move that surprised U.S. officials. "All of this was done without any prior notice or consultation," Agriculture Department spokesman Ed Loyd said. Russia's Agriculture Ministry said it canceled all import licenses for poultry because of violations of import rules. Agriculture Minister Alexei V. Gordeyev said the problem was temporary and that new licenses would be issued within two weeks.

U.S. chicken producers face a challenge: cut production or watch breast meat prices fall even further than the seven-year lows notched this week in the wholesale markets, analysts said. Consumers have yet to see dramatically lower prices for chicken breasts at grocery stores because supermarkets often are slow to pass on wholesale price declines. But shoppers could enjoy lower prices eventually if production remains high.