Bird Flu Epidemic Could Impact Future Down Prices

Allied Feather & Down issued a statement this week to partners regarding the “fairly widespread bird flu currently affecting many birds all across Europe.” Initially, Allied do not think there was a lot of traction to the localized occurrences.

“However, after speaking with government officials on the ground, it appears the situation has taken a turn for the worse in recent weeks. Reports of new cases are now coming from several European regions including France, Germany, Switzerland, Holland, Hungary, Romania, Poland, and Bulgaria,” said the statement.

The common virus, which has been detected as the H5N8 virus, has been found to originate in Mongolia, and has spread during the last 18 months. The virus is considered to be very aggressive and is causing a substantial percentage of mortality in the birds, said Allied. In industrial regions, breeders are pained with reductions in flock sizes between 25% and 60% including the necessity of culling the mother birds which lay the eggs.

“We are keeping a very close watch over this issue and will continue to report as necessary,” continued Allied in the statement. “We want to assure our partners that all down booked for this season is secure and the prices will of course be kept. The issue is that we do not know the extent to which this can affect pricing for future seasons.”

What’s more, Allied said that all down processed by the company is completely safe for use with no risk of virus in the material.


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