Experts: Chicken Safe from Bird Flu, If Cooked

U.S. consumers who eat poultry are not at risk for contracting bird flu found in chickens because the virus is destroyed when meat is cooked, two experts said on Monday.

U.S. consumers who eat poultry are not at risk for contracting bird flu found in chickens because the virus is destroyed when meat is cooked, two experts said on Monday. Federal health officials downplayed the risk of bird flu to the food supply after a strain of the disease that is highly contagious to other birds was found on a Texas farm. While the food supply appears secure, farm workers who handle live chickens are being closely monitored for the next 10 days because the virus can spread through handling sick chickens, and through the air in the presence of the chickens or from affected fecal matter on trucks or shoes. The strain found in Texas, known as H5N2, is different from the kind found in Asia called H5N1 that has been blamed for the deaths of at least 22 people in recent weeks. American consumers are safe from many pathogens — including bird flu — if they heat chicken to at least 160 degrees Fahrenheit, a temperature high enough to kill viruses. “There is no scientific evidence of this virus being transmitted through the food supply to humans,” said Lyle Vogel, a director with the American Veterinary Medical Association. “It is well know and well established … that any mild heating will kill the virus, even if it is a higher strain,” he added. The last time a highly pathogenic strain of bird flu was found in the United States was in 1984, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department. More than 17 million birds were killed then at a cost of nearly $65 million. A milder strain of bird flu also was found this month in Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey, prompting 30 countries to ban imports of some or all U.S. poultry. “At this point we have no reason to believe the consumer has come in contact with” the bird flu virus, said Steve Cohen, a spokesman for USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service. The deaths in Asia have occurred from handling sick chickens, not eating them, Vogel said. “The people that are getting sick are those that are in direct contact with the chickens, not with the poultry parts,” said Vogel. (Source: Medline Plus, United Press International, Feb 2004)