But industry and agriculture experts predicted Wednesday that any shift in consumer's meat-purchasing habits would be short-lived.
"I suspect you'll have some temporary effect in the marketplace on every commodity," said Tommy Irvin, agriculture commissioner in Georgia, where the poultry industry generates $12 billion annually - much of it in northeast Georgia. "But I think the long-term price on beef is going to recover from whatever hit it's taken because the public is going to realize that the supply is safe."
On Wednesday, at least some poultry outlets seemed to be getting an immediate boost from news that a cow in Washington state showed up with the degenerative brain disease, leading nations including Japan, Taiwan and Mexico to ban imports of U.S. beef.
On Wall Street, the nations leading egg producer, Cal-Maine Foods Inc., was up $2.10 per share.
At the same time, beef-heavy restaurant chains suffered. In early trading, McDonald's Corp. lost $1.47, Wendy's International Inc. was down $2.05 and Outback Steakhouse Inc. shares fell $1.78.
Restaurants specializing in chicken, not beef, said they expect to benefit from those declines.
"We're not trying to advance ourselves in the negative, but we do believe it could drive up appetite for chicken," said Don Perry, spokesman for Atlanta-based Chick-Fil-A.
But Perry said the chain, which has 1,125 fast-food restaurants and an advertising campaign with cute cows urging people to eat chicken instead of beef, isn't looking at the scare as good news.
"Any time there's a concern about something in the food service system, it can hurt all of us," he said. "In our case, there may be a positive, in terms of more appetite for chicken, but you hope it doesn't have a ripple effect where people say they're just not dining out until this is over."
http://accesswdun.com/article/2003/12/166446