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Chicken Sales Plummet in China, Hong Kong After Bird Flu Returns

Tyler Durden's picture




 

The last time China's birdflu epidemic dominated the ether, and internet, was in April, when news of numerous casualties led many to believe that the epidemic was on the verge of breaching all local containment measures. And then, suddenly, all media coverage of China's H7N9 story disappeared as if by Department of Truth (and propaganda) magic. Naturally, the quick popular response was to assume that all was again well since the government no longer made it a notable topic - just like the Japanese government did with Fukushima. However, as in the case of Fukushima, it turns out all may not have been well. As Japan's NHK reports, H7N9 bird flu strain is once again spreading in southern China, claiming the 148th victim of the vicious flu virus. Or perhaps instead of "once again" it was simply "constantly."

From NHK:

Provincial authorities in southern China are increasing measures against the spread of the H7N9 bird flu. They are warning that the chance of contracting the disease is rising.

 

Health officials of Guangdong Province said on Thursday that a 38-year-old man in Shenzhen came down with the H7N9 strain. The man is being treated at hospital and remains in critical condition.

 

This is the 148th case of human H7N9 infection in mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. The first case emerged in Shanghai in March.

 

Reports of the H7N9 infection entered a lull in the summer. But Guangdong officials say the 38-year-old man is the 4th human infection case over the past week. Hong Kong authorities also confirmed the H7N9 virus in 2 people who had visited the province this month.

 

Guangdong's government is increasing its counter-measures. It is sending teams of experts to inspect live poultry markets and medical institutions across the province.

Others aren't waiting for the diligent, honest and accurate Chinese government to do its job. Because as SCMP reports, in next door neighbor Hong Kong, sales of chicken have already plunged by 40% on just the several hushed bird flu stories alone.

Chicken was absent from many local dinner tables last night as Hongkongers celebrated winter solstice, with wet market vendors complaining of a drop in sales because of bird flu fears.

 

Trader Ma Ping-loon, a member of the Poultry Dealers and Workers Association, said business was down about 40 per cent from last year's festival. "We're badly affected by this. Very few people are buying chicken compared with last year. Sales have been slow all day," Ma said.

 

He added that the price for one catty (about 600 grams) of fresh chicken fell 30 per cent yesterday to about HK$45. A live-chicken vendor at the Java Road Municipal Services Building in North Point said sales of both local chickens and those imported from the mainland were down compared with last year, but the prices were about the same.

 

One shopper at the market said she would serve seafood instead of
chicken this year. "I'm avoiding any form of contact with chicken,
whether it's dead or alive," she said, adding that she had made the
decision after news of the first death from the new strain of bird flu
affecting humans, H10N8, in Jiangxi province.

Hopefully it is not seafood from the Fukushima region. As for the sources of this latest breakout:

Mainland health authorities last week confirmed that an elderly woman died earlier this month after contracting H10N8, another strain of bird flu that has crossed the species barrier.

 

...

 

The latest case is a 38-year-old migrant worker who lives and works in Nanwan Street, Longgang, near the market, who was in critical condition in hospital.

 

A second patient, a 39-year-old man from Dongguan, commuted to the district.

 

The pair follow Tri Mawarti, a domestic helper who on December 2 became the first person in Hong Kong diagnosed with the virus. She is believed to have handled a live chicken at a flat in Nanwan Street before falling ill.

 

Guangdong has confirmed six cases of H7N9 in humans since August. So far, there have been 143 confirmed cases on the mainland, in Taiwan and Hong Kong.

 

Meanwhile, public hospitals in Hong Kong have stepped up tests for bird flu. All patients with pneumonia and flu-like symptoms are required to be tested for bird flu, even if they have not come into contact with birds or poultry or travelled recently.

In other words, in the food heavy CPI-weighed country of China, as a result of tumbling demand for chickens and associated prices, the market may once again assume that there is deflation any minute just because the ultraviolet light special for chickens is on.

That, and of course the staff of YUM having to "explain" why its KFC China sales are once again about to crater, and why it is nothing to be concerned about.

 

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Sun, 12/22/2013 - 22:27 | 4269737 NIHILIST CIPHER
NIHILIST CIPHER's picture

Sum Ting Wong Wis Mie Flied Chicken!    

Sun, 12/22/2013 - 22:38 | 4269764 max2205
max2205's picture

Bullish for YUM....Kfc switching to frog legs

Mon, 12/23/2013 - 00:21 | 4269986 Stackers
Stackers's picture

5 people have died from H1N1 swine flu in Texas recently
http://www.chron.com/news/texas/article/At-least-5-deaths-in-Texas-blame...

Mon, 12/23/2013 - 05:38 | 4270270 malikai
malikai's picture

And then, suddenly, all media coverage of China's H7N9 story disappeared as if by Department of Truth (and propaganda) magic.

Uh, let's see. It's a flu virus. Flu viruses are more active in the winter.

Yea, it's a fucking conspiracy!

Mon, 12/23/2013 - 03:59 | 4270215 Kirk2NCC1701
Kirk2NCC1701's picture

Long Hair of Dog and Dog Chow Mein.

Sun, 12/22/2013 - 22:41 | 4269779 rubiconsolutions
rubiconsolutions's picture

What a fowl story.

Mon, 12/23/2013 - 05:12 | 4270259 TheFourthStooge-ing
TheFourthStooge-ing's picture

One shopper at the market said she would not take cock and pullet.

Trader Ma Ping-loon added that the price for one catty (about two kittenweights) of fresh chicken fell 30 per cent yesterday.

Sun, 12/22/2013 - 22:26 | 4269744 pods
pods's picture

Let's hope that it doesn't jump to dogs.

pods

Sun, 12/22/2013 - 22:43 | 4269782 nmewn
nmewn's picture

Or pigs...lol.

Mon, 12/23/2013 - 03:41 | 4270200 old naughty
old naughty's picture

Or humans...oh, wait, they're being directed to us.

Sun, 12/22/2013 - 22:35 | 4269748 williambanzai7
williambanzai7's picture

Gee wiz, NHK now doing an expose on what has been all over the news in Hong Kong every day for the past two months...

Don't they have anything radioactive to report? 

Sun, 12/22/2013 - 22:39 | 4269766 NoDebt
NoDebt's picture

"It is a known fact that more people died from Keynesian economics this year..."

Prove it.

I have 148 divided by 2 Billion on my side.  Which equals..... well, something really really small.  Like almost zero.  But I'm standing by that unassailable number.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Sun, 12/22/2013 - 23:32 | 4269899 Pseudo Anonym
Pseudo Anonym's picture

but you know what, between april and december, 8 long months, 148 victims, that's a fucking epidemic any way you slice it. /sarc

Sun, 12/22/2013 - 22:33 | 4269755 JohnG
JohnG's picture

 

 

I fear this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/31/business/chinese-chicken-processors-ar...

I grow my own.  It isn't hard.

Sun, 12/22/2013 - 22:52 | 4269798 A Lunatic
A Lunatic's picture

But if we don't import their chickens they won't import ours........

Sun, 12/22/2013 - 22:58 | 4269821 Oldwood
Oldwood's picture

So do chickens fed with melamine have stronger shelled eggs?

I don't think it's racist to suggest that I don't want to eat anything grown in China.

Sun, 12/22/2013 - 23:07 | 4269844 A Lunatic
A Lunatic's picture

I have heard that some poultry farmers raise their chickens over the fish farm ponds, thus giving the fish all of the nourishment they need to grow healthy and strong. Last time I checked I did not see excrement listed anywhere on the food pyramid, but who knows since Moochelle gave it a work over and renamed it 'My Plate'. Makes some weird sense I guess considering the amount of shit I find on my plate these days thanks to D.C. politics.......

Sun, 12/22/2013 - 23:23 | 4269875 Oldwood
Oldwood's picture

A little chicken shit can go a long way. Look at Obama.

Sun, 12/22/2013 - 22:33 | 4269756 ZH Snob
ZH Snob's picture

no wonder Obama wants them to start selling it to us in the USA.

Sun, 12/22/2013 - 22:32 | 4269757 are we there yet
are we there yet's picture

Mark Twain had a good quote:
"You can ignore reality, but you can not ignore the consequences of ignoring reality".
News works the same way.

Sun, 12/22/2013 - 22:40 | 4269775 NoDebt
NoDebt's picture

Yeah, but you can TRY TO really hard.

People don't try to drink sand in the desert because they are thirsty, they drink the sand because they don't know any better.

Sun, 12/22/2013 - 22:48 | 4269786 Oldwood
Oldwood's picture

Oh, I think they know better. Its just simple desperation to try anything. We migrate from delusion as a more pleasant alternative to reality to the only alternative to reality. Reality always wins. We know this. We just don't want to accept it. Like getting old.

Sun, 12/22/2013 - 22:40 | 4269772 LetThemEatRand
LetThemEatRand's picture

On the bright side, you can't see what you're eating with all of the smog.

Sun, 12/22/2013 - 22:43 | 4269776 Oldwood
Oldwood's picture

Are chickens really the issue or just as easy target? Sparrows are much harder to hit.

Sun, 12/22/2013 - 22:51 | 4269797 are we there yet
are we there yet's picture

China State TV should say that China's heavy smog protects citizens from H1N1.

Sun, 12/22/2013 - 22:57 | 4269807 A Lunatic
A Lunatic's picture

Meanwhile scientists are feverishly trying to engineer a strain of bird flu that is easily transmitted human to human and impervious to any known medical treatment.........

Sun, 12/22/2013 - 23:03 | 4269826 Oldwood
Oldwood's picture

Anything to save the healthcare industry. I'm sure it will thin out the higher cost patrons while supplying a regular customer base.

Sun, 12/22/2013 - 23:27 | 4269881 YHC-FTSE
YHC-FTSE's picture

Yep. Read the story last week.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/untrue-statements-anger-over-w...

Some are blithely following orders, and the rest are protesting furiously against the psychopaths who have successfully made human to human AND AIRBORNE influenza viruses in the lab. At least 50 senior scientists have signed protests to the European commission about it.

They've been saying for years that a flu pandemic is overdue. Now they have the weaponised viruses to make it happen.  As bad as it is, H7N9 is not transmittable human to human so only those who work directly with poultry are at risk, but make it human to human and airborne,  we're talking 33%+ mortality rate, a massive 60%+ for H5N1 according to the CDC and WHO. 

Sun, 12/22/2013 - 23:00 | 4269823 NoWayJose
NoWayJose's picture

Hmmmmm - what do with infected chicken... Ahhhhh... Send America to make McNuggets... No one know what in those....

Sun, 12/22/2013 - 23:08 | 4269839 firstdivision
firstdivision's picture

Natty has hit my sell level. See you guys on the otherside.

Sun, 12/22/2013 - 23:14 | 4269860 Shrapnel
Shrapnel's picture

And to think we are going to be exporting our chickens to China for slaughter and subsequent re-importation. Might as well just allow China to import their own chickens. It will happen anyway, so what difference, at this point, does it make? I stopped eating seafood in the wake of Fukushima. Now chicken is on that list too. An Avian Flu epidemic in the US is now just a matter of time, and probably by design.

Sun, 12/22/2013 - 23:23 | 4269873 hunglow
hunglow's picture

American pork, the other white meat.

Mon, 12/23/2013 - 01:16 | 4270085 mkucstars
mkucstars's picture

Smithfield, another chinese company now.

 

Sun, 12/22/2013 - 23:27 | 4269889 didyoujustpullt...
didyoujustpullthatoutofyourass's picture

To the side of the page is an ad for Hainan Airlines offering specials to China. I think I'll pass.

Mon, 12/23/2013 - 00:06 | 4269962 wisehiney
wisehiney's picture

I was just complaining today because I can't eat tuna, salmon, mackerel any more.

Now duck, squab, chicken?!?

Mad cow, swine flu stay away. 

 

Mon, 12/23/2013 - 00:06 | 4269966 wisehiney
wisehiney's picture

What is the difference between swine flu and bird flu?

For one you get oink-ment and the other you get tweet-ment.

Mon, 12/23/2013 - 00:15 | 4269978 tony bonn
tony bonn's picture

the cia is determined to kill off every last chicken in china.

Mon, 12/23/2013 - 00:23 | 4269997 vic and blood
vic and blood's picture

The only safe meats left in China are rats, cats, and insects.

Mon, 12/23/2013 - 00:33 | 4270010 q99x2
q99x2's picture

Shut down the NY offices of JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, The FED and Goldman Sachs, convert them into free range, quarantined, chicken farms and get this country back to productivity.

Mon, 12/23/2013 - 01:01 | 4270064 walküre
walküre's picture

16,000 dead pigs floated in Chinese rivers earlier this year. Much of our food supply is already infested with ingredients from China. Fruit and vegetables grown on human fecies from Mexico. I'll pass.

Rules and regulations are being watered down more and more for the sake of "free trade".

Know your (local) food source and be well!

Mon, 12/23/2013 - 03:37 | 4270197 AGoldhamster
AGoldhamster's picture

Extremely bullish ... SnP 184x a matter of a day. Or two.

Mon, 12/23/2013 - 04:31 | 4270231 rgetty
rgetty's picture

Thats ok the US is importing chicken from China again and they dont see to care what they allow to be imported.

Mon, 12/23/2013 - 05:21 | 4270262 strangewalk
strangewalk's picture

I contracted SARS when I was living in southern China back in 2003. It was basically just the flu that hit the respitory system particularly hard. Although SARS had a fairly low mortality rate I could easily understand how someone could die from it, because several times during the night my lungs would quickly fill with phlegm making it very difficult to breath--the sensation was like drowning. Six months after Hong Kong's South China Morning Post and the World Health Organization announced that the epidemic had been erradicated in China, a Chinese nurse I knew at a large hospital told me that the medical system was flooded by SARS patients and that many of them were dying. That's why I will never believe anything that comes from the lying media, government or even supposedly independent mouthpieces like WHO.  

Mon, 12/23/2013 - 08:35 | 4270412 goldenbuddha454
goldenbuddha454's picture

So glad the US is allowing their chicken to be sold in our stores now

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/31/business/chinese-chicken-processors-are-cleared-to-ship-to-us.html?_r=0

That was just another move saying 'Please Mr. Chairman, don't dump that 1.6Trillion in bonds, otherwise TAPER IS OFF!'

Mon, 12/23/2013 - 09:00 | 4270447 Reader1
Reader1's picture

Makes you want to buy Soylent Green as a healthy option.  Soylent Green is FREE RANGE people.

Mon, 12/23/2013 - 09:09 | 4270454 Casey Stengel
Casey Stengel's picture

Hmmmmm..........that H10N8 chicken crossed the road last month about 2 miles west of here. I mentioned to the cab driver, "did you notice anything funny about that chicken?"

Mon, 12/23/2013 - 13:49 | 4271158 Clycntct
Clycntct's picture

I get it but it's a streeeeeeetch.

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