TURKEY AVIAN INFLUENZA: POULTRY SECTOR

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 ANKARA 003307 SIPDIS HHS FOR WSTEIGER/PBUDASHEWITZ USAID FOR BLANCHET, TROSTLE AND CARROLL FAS FOR ITP/MACKE/THOMAS/LEIER, CMP/MOLSTAD, FAA/DEVER FAS PASS FSIS AND APHIS VIENNA PASS APHIS BRUSSELS PASS APHIS/FERNANDEZ GENEVA PASS HEALTH ATTACHE SIPDIS E.O. 12958:N/A TAGS: EAGR EAID TBIO AMED CASC KFLU SENV TU SUBJECT: TURKEY AVIAN INFLUENZA: POULTRY SECTOR RECOVERING Ref: (A) Ankara 1524 and previous, (B) Ankara 2708, (C) State 67574 ANKARA 00003307 001.2 OF 004 ¶1. (U) Summary. There have been no new AI cases in poultry or on wild birds in Turkey since March 31, 2006. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, the AI outbreak was completely extinguished by April 24, 2006. The Protection and Control General Directorate issued the last follow up report to the OIE and EU on May 17, 2006. Screening of village poultry has been terminated; however, screening of industrial operations continues. The Ministry of Health confirmed no human cases since the January outbreak. End Summary. -------------- General Avian Influenza Situation in Turkey -------------- ¶2. (U) The last reported case of Avian Influenza (AI) in the poultry population was in Yozgat province on March 31, 2006. As of May 16, 2006, there have not been any new AI cases reported. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) finished culling in designated areas throughout the country on April 24 and, as a result, all quarantines and surveillance were lifted as of May 16, ¶2006. According to Turkish regulations, three weeks after the last case is extinguished, the Ministry of Agriculture can remove all quarantines and related restrictions, once all culling has been completed. However, restrictions related to banning of live bird markets, selling of live birds, and hunting of wild birds will continue indefinitely. Field surveillance is also continuing, with random blood samples taken for at least three additional months and monitoring of the results. MARA's General Directorate for Protection and Control issued its latest report to the OIE and EU with this information on May 17, 2006. ¶3. (U) A total of 163 samples, 136 samples from backyard poultry and 27 samples from wild birds, were submitted to the regional laboratories for testing between April 12 and May 12. A total of 134 (118 poultry and 16 wild birds) tests were negative. Out of the same total, 7 (1 poultry and 6 wild bird) samples could not be processed. Seventeen poultry and 5 wild bird samples are still under investigation. Screening of poultry in villages has ceased. However, the periodic screening of industrial poultry operations still continues. This testing will continue indefinitely since Turkey is on bird migratory routes. ¶4. (U) The Ministry of Environment and Forestry and the Wildlife Society jointly carried out surveillance on migrating birds during the outbreak with support from the Dutch Embassy. Suspicious cases were reported to the Ministry of Agriculture. The Ministry of Environment and Forestry has been working on a project to observe bird migrating routes and develop a National Bird Observation System. They will complete this project and present to the State Planning Organization for its finding during the next couple of months. They hope the program will be funded in the 2007 budget. -------------- Broiler Sector -------------- ¶5. (U) Turkey's broiler sector has been hard hit by AI since last October. Demand for poultry meat declined nearly 90 percent shortly after the December outbreak and, as a result, stocks increased to 100,000 MT, which is quite unusual for this fresh/chilled meat market. Prices were as low as YTL 1.50 per kilogram for whole ANKARA 00003307 002.2 OF 004 birds at the height of the crisis. Demand started to rebound in March and production started to increase. The price of fresh meat increased to YTL 2.60 per kilogram of whole bird. The cost of producing one kilogram of whole chicken is about YTL 2.00. Thus, producers started to make some profits. This encouraged producers to increase their production and, as a result, prices again decreased because of excess production. Current prices are around YTL 1.60 per kilogram for whole birds. Broiler stocks have not been totally eliminated and are currently estimated at around 70,000 MT with stock prices at about YTL 1.50 per kilogram. ¶6. (U) Turkey produced about 940,000 MT of broilers in 2004 and 960,000 MT in 2005. Some sector representatives are projecting and hoping that broiler production in 2006 will be at similar levels to the year before or even slightly better. On the other hand, others are not so optimistic believing that broiler production in 2006 will be about ten percent lower than the previous year. Turkey is estimated to produce about 50,000 MT of turkeys and 55,000 MT of spent hens and other poultry. -------------- Layer Sector -------------- ¶7. (U) Turkey had about 43 million layers (including about 14 million layer chicks) in 2005. The GOT issued a decree on January 24, 2006 to cull all spent hens. A total of 13.5 million industrial birds were culled in one month. The total number of industrial layers is currently estimated to be around 34 million (including 8 million layer chicks). Since a total of 13.5 million layers were culled earlier, this number assumes that 4.5 million of layers were added to the total stocks after the outbreak (43 minus 13.5 plus 4.5 equals 34). The GOT also culled an additional 2.5 million birds in areas where quarantine and surveillance programs were implemented. It is estimated that there are a total of 20 million birds owned by villagers in Turkey. Villagers outside of quarantine and surveillance zones continue to keep their birds, but they were asked to keep them in the cages. Those villagers whose birds were culled are mostly buying meat and eggs from the markets. This naturally caused a reduction in their consumption since some of these villagers do not have easy access to the markets and most of them do not have the financial ability to buy as much as they consumed before. ¶8. (U) In March and April, the GOT paid nearly a total of YTL 15 million (YTL 1.10 for each culled bird) or about USD 1.1 million for all culled industrial layers. The GOT also announced a support program on March 30, 2006 for slaughtering spent hens, which will be in effect for three months. The GOT will provide YTL 0.30 per bird slaughtered for producers and YTL 0.10 per bird for slaughterhouses. It is estimated that about four million spent hens will be slaughtered in a three-month period. Total payments are expected to be about YTL 1.6 million (or amount USD 1.1 million) once the program is completed in July. ¶9. (U) The Turkish egg sector suffered from the AI crises longer than the broiler sector since large stocks cannot be maintained. The sector had stocks of about 500 million eggs during the crisis. Egg prices decreased from YTL 0.07 per egg to YTL 0.03 at the peak of the crisis (all prices are those received by the producers). Producers expected to lose YTL 1 million daily. Egg prices increased gradually to about YTL 0.06 per egg until mid April. Producers continued to lose money since the cost of an egg was about YTL 0.07. After April 15, ANKARA 00003307 003.2 OF 004 2006 (after all of the stocks were eliminated) egg prices bounced back at around YTL 0.80 and producers started to make some profit. Egg prices, however, decreased slightly since then and are currently fluctuating around YTL 0.07 and 0.075. Current domestic demand for eggs is estimated on the average at around 140 million a week and 7.3 billion a year compared to 160 millin a week and 8.3 billion a year a year ago. -------------- The Impact of AI on Red Meat and Fish Sectors -------------- ¶10. (U) The AI outbreaks occurred in the middle of the fishing season. Turkish fishermen caught more than normal levels of fish especially bonitoes and anchovies last winter. This has reduced the problems related to the protein availability for the consumers. Fish consumption went up, and as a result, fish prices were doubled. However, fish was still the cheapest source of protein for most of the population since anchovies, bonitos, and similar fish are usually inexpensive compared to red meat during the winter months in Turkey. ¶12. (U) Red meat prices varied a lot during the crisis. Red meat prices have been very high in Turkey in recent years. The bovine meat prices went up as high as YTL 9.60 per kilogram of carcass weight during earlier stages of the crisis, but dropped to the current levels of around YTL 7.80 - 8.20 per kilogram of carcass weight, which was about the same price prior to the outbreak. Red meat prices have been rather stable since last April. -------------- International Assistance -------------- ¶13. (U) The World Bank, EU, and FAO prepared assistance programs related to the AI crisis in Turkey. The World Bank coordinated an international assistance package that included a $34.4 million World Bank loan to minimize the threat posed to humans by AI in Turkey (Ref B). The loan will support prevention, preparedness and planning as well as response and containment of the disease. This is World Bank's third AI operation in the Europe and Central Asia region. The loan has a 15-year maturity and a 5- year grace period. The loan will help finance activities under three components: animal health, human health and public awareness. USAID is contributing a total of USD 1 million to the package. Of this total, USD 750,000 will be spent on restructuring the backyard poultry sector and USD 250,000 will be spent on public awareness and training for those in the backyard poultry sector. ¶14. (U) The European Union also provided a euro 10.4 million support program to strengthen laboratory infrastructure and disease control. Of this, euro 6 million will be spent on supply materials for the Ministry of Health, euro 2.2 million will be spent on supply materials for the Ministry of Agriculture (on buying laboratory equipments, test kits, etc.) and euro 2.2 million will be spent on technical assistance for both Ministries. Of this total, the EU is providing a grant for euro 8.35 million and urkey is providing euro 2.05 million (25 percent of the investment sections). FAO also has a technical assistance project. One international expert (epidemiologist from Northern Ireland, UK) and one local expert (veterinarian from Ankara) were hired for six months (March - September, 2006) for emergency assistance for the control and prevention of AI. The allocated budget for the project is USD 93,500. ANKARA 00003307 004.2 OF 004 ¶15. Dr Yildirim Bayazit from the Ministry of Health confirmed to us that there had been no human cases of AI since the January outbreak. He said a total of 1000 suspected cases from that time had been tested. He said that screening and monitoring continued. (Note: Turkey suffered a total of 12 WHO confirmed human cases and four deaths in January. End Note.) -------------- Comment -------------- ¶16. (SBU) Comment: One of the positive results from the AI outbreaks is that the poultry industry was forced to become more organized, more united and more proactive in promoting its sector, especially the health benefits of poultry. Producers with well-known brand names that increased their investments in advertising campaigns and marketing strategies benefited more than others. Banvit, for instance, held 4.4 percent of the market before the AI crisis. After a heavy marketing campaign in February 2006, Banvit's market share increased to 15.7 percent. In total, all brand names in the poultry industry gained 40 percent of the market share after the crisis, compared to 17 percent in October 2005. As a result of focused advertising, consumers began to trust more in these established facilities and switched to purchasing properly packaged poultry by well-known brands. ¶17. (SBU) Comment: Turkey should be able to export poultry to the EU at any time since the EU has approved Turkey's residual control program. However, due to the AI outbreaks, the Turkish poultry will have to wait six months after the last outbreak before it is able to resume exporting. Additionally, the poultry industry representatives doubt that the EU will actually permit poultry exports to resume until Turkey's bans on EU live animal and meat are also lifted. WILSON