This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English AgricultureReport.

A United Nations report says outbreaks of animal disease couldreduce world meat exports by one-third this year. The Food andAgriculture Organization says losses could reachten-thousand-million dollars if import bans stay in place all year.And this does not include costs like the measures to control thecurrent outbreaks in Asia, the United States and Canada.

In late February, the United States reported an outbreak of birdflu on a farm near San Antonio, Texas. The highly infectious viruswas different from the one found earlier in the Northeast. Butofficials said there was no danger to the public in either case.

Texas officials immediately destroyed almost seven-thousandbirds. Jim Rogers of the Animal and Plant Inspection Service at theUnited States Department of Agriculture says the outbreak is undercontrol. He says no new cases have been reported. He says birdsexperience a flu season just like people do.

But the outbreak in Texas led the European Union to suspend allimports of live chickens, turkeys and eggs from the United States.The ban will remain at least until March twenty-third. One-third ofworld poultry exports come from the United States.

The world market in beef has also suffered, because of mad cowdisease. Last year one case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy wasfound in Canada and one in the United States. The United States andCanada hold a twenty-five percent share of the world beef market.

Last week Mexico agreed to reopen its border to some UnitedStates beef products. But many countries continue to ban imports ofbeef or chicken, or both. Some have banned chicken imports only fromaffected states.

Import bans can affect countries differently. Japan, for example,imports much of its chicken and beef. The result was an increase offorty-percent last month in the price of meat from pigs. Japan hasalso had its own problems with bird flu and mad cow disease. A thirdoutbreak of flu virus H5N1 was reported late last month, this timeat a farm in Kyoto. That is the virus that has killed more thantwenty people in Vietnam and Thailand.

Concern about bird flu has affected even countries in Asia wherethe virus has not been reported. The U.N. Food and AgricultureOrganization says lower demand for chicken and eggs in India, forexample, has cut prices there by one-third.

This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by MarioRitter. This is Steve Ember.