The detection of bird flu in a single poultry farm in southern Brazil is reverberating around the world, cutting supplies to voracious consumers from China to Europe.
Shipments to top destinations, which also include Mexico and South Korea, have been suspended as the world’s largest chicken exporter seeks to stop the deadly H5N1 strain from spreading. The bans have so far shut down markets accounting for more than $4 billion a year in export revenues, or 40% of the total, according to government data.
Brazil can’t easily be replaced. It supplies more than one-third of the global export market, and its longstanding status as a nation free from bird flu had so far given local producers an edge against competitors including the US in the past few years.