The health of the flock, … is probably the best that it’s ever been.

It only comes from actually handling a live, infected chicken. We don’t have any of those in the U.S.A. and only a small number of people in Asia have contacted it. The danger, right now,...

Any flock … with avian influenza will be destroyed on the farm.

We just want to assure people of the safety of the food supply.

What concerns me is the mixing of birds from different places in one spot. We warn the farmers who work with our industry to have absolutely no dealings with the live-bird markets.

So far, we’ve not seen any impact, but we’re reviewing our options to see what we need to do to keep it that way.

The trend is going in the wrong direction. The industry is concerned about this as well. These are our plants, this is our problem, and this is our challenge.

Right now, I think the industry’s concern with public perception of the problem is a much bigger issue than a substantive concern about an outbreak here.

We were surprised. We thought wings or tenders would be higher (than the Caesar). But I guess it’s the universal chicken dish.

Even if we did have an outbreak, which is unlikely, it’s going to be very limited. And the number of birds involved will be very small.

We are not aware of any study that shows implications of any possibility of harm to human health as the result of the use of these products at the levels directed.

There’s nothing more that consumers should be doing that they aren’t doing already.

This is certainly the biggest issue facing the industry today, no question about that.

Exactly how that works, what the practical impact on immediate trade will be, we’re still trying to find out. We certainly want it resolved as soon as possible.

First of all, we don’t have it in the U.S. and we’re doing everything to keep it out, … If we have an outbreak, we could contain it. If we had to kill 5 million...

But we’re not waiting for signs to show up.

We understand the concerns that some people have, but the simple fact is we don’t have any problem with the H5N1 form [of the disease] here in the U.S.,

This thing has spread like wildfire in Southeast Asia and now in Nigeria, but conditions are totally different. You walk into a rural village and there are chickens running all over the place.

I’m not defending it, and we are concerned about consumer perceptions, but the fact of the matter is, cooking destroys any virus, so canned food, as long as the canning is done properly, doesn’t present...

This is the first program to cover the commercial industry as comprehensively as we are doing. We are gratified that 90 percent of the producers have signed up for the program, and more will come...

The timing is a mystery to us. We did not seek this rule. We’re not objecting to it, but we didn’t support it, either.