27 October 2005 - Recent articles in the Thai press show that the country is enjoying growth in terms of frozen and processed chicken exports and is reportedly not being affected by bird flu, which has become a global crisis rather than just a national 'Sword of Damocles'. Chantra Purnariksha, department director-general of the Thai Export Promotion Department, expects exports of frozen and processed chicken will increase 37.7% this year. From January to September 2005, exports were up 28.6% on the year .

October 26 2005 - UK supermarkets and poultry producers believe consumer confidence is holding up despite signs of falling demand elsewhere in Europe, say reports in the British business press. The French poultry industry federation has reported a 20% drop in poultry sales over the last week and Italy saw a 40% fall in chicken consumption in September, say reports. The British Poultry Council, however, has said there had been no reduction in UK demand.

25 October 2005 - The Thai Fishmeal Manufacturers Association is calling on the Thai government to substitute powdered chicken in animal feed with locally-produced fishmeal, say reports in the Bangkok business press. The TFMA says that using fish meal as an alternative feed raw material could help the stop of bird flu. Thailand is believed to import around 5000 tonnes of powdered chicken monthly, from the US, Europe, Australia and New Zealand .

24 October 2005 - With accession of the 10 New Member States (NMS) well behind us, EU dairy markets are stabilizing again and lasting market dynamics become clearer. Milk production is increasing in the Czech Republic, Lithuania and Poland, while in some other NMS like Hungary, Slovenia and the Slovak Republic, which used to have higher dairy subsidy levels, the sector still has difficulties to adapt to the changed market conditions. Especially the Polish dairy processing sector appears to be very efficient because of the large investments to upgrade the sector to meet EU sanitary standards and because of the increase in milk deliveries to the industry .

18 October 2005 - The forecast for third-quarter 2005 U.S. broiler production was reduced by 150 million pounds to 8.95 billion pounds, and the fourth quarter 2005 production estimate was reduced by 50 million pounds to 8.75 billion pounds. Over the last several months, the number of broiler-type chicks being placed for growout has been only slightly higher than the previous year. From July 2 to September 24, a period of 13 weeks, the number of broiler-type chicks being placed each week for growout averaged 174 million .

11 October 2005 - Exports continued to be a bright spot for U.S. hog producers in 2004, according to recently released data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. For the year, U.S. pork exports broke the 2003 record by 35 percent, making 2004 the 13th consecutive year of record exports. U.S. share of world trade increased by 2.9 percentage points during the year, to 11.5 percent. And the value of U.S. pork exports rose 41 percent to $2.227 billion, a new record. Pork and pork variety meats exports totaled 1,023,413 metric tons in 2004, up from 757,406 metric tons in 2003 .

03 October 2005 - Although recent new outbreaks of Avian Influenza (AI) extending westwards from Asia into the Russian Federation are raising concerns over potential disruption in the global meat industry sector, international meat markets in the past few months were characterized by a strong recovery from the previous wave of disruption caused by animal disease problems in 2004. An increase in demand for meat, as consumption returned closer to normal levels, and the reopening of many previously closed markets has put strong upward pressure on international prices in the first half of 2005.