Recent outbreaks of H7N3 avian influenza in Mexico have not greatly hurt Pilgrim's Mexican operations, company CEO Bill Lovette said, but the Mexican poultry industry as a whole will take longer to recover.
In February, Pilgrim's identified an increased mortality rate of the breeder flock at the company's complex in Guanajuato in Central Mexico. It worked with regulatory officials to perform blood tests on its chickens and stepped up biosecurity efforts. However, Lovette said the company has done well to deal with the situation.
"As far as Pilgrim's Mexico, our volume has not been significantly impacted as we've been able to supplement with hatching eggs from the U.S. the loss of the one farm we had back in February," he said during a conference call with shareholders on May 3. "While a slightly higher mortality rate has taken some volume out of our production, it's not been significant. We've been able to weather the storm."
During the conference call, Lovette reported an improvement in both earnings and net income for the quarter.
When asked about how he thought the overall industry in Mexico is doing in response to the outbreak, he said it will recover, but it will take a little more time. "We believe that a significant number of breeders were lost to the virus by other companies," said Lovette. "It's going to take a miminum of six to nine months to recover that breeder supply, and possibly even longer as we go forward."
