(Yicai) July 19 -- Many Chinese chicken breeders logged a big jump in their share prices today after Brazil’s Department of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply, also known as MAPA, said that it is pausing exports of its chickens to many countries, including China, due to an outbreak of Newcastle disease.

Henan Huaying Agricultural Development’s share price [SHE:002321] soared by the exchange-imposed limit of 10 percent to close at CNY1.56 (USD0.21). Ningxia Xiaoming Agriculture & Animal Husbandry’s stock price hit 10 percent during the day and closed up 6.8 percent at CNY11.58 (USD1.59).

Shares in Fujian Tianma Science and Technology Group [SHA:603668] finished up 5.2 percent at CNY12.15 (USD1.67) while that of Hunan Xiangjia Animal Husbandry [SHE:002982] climbed 4.4 percent to end at CNY17.48 (USD2.41) and that of Shandong Minhe Animal Husbandry [SHE:002234] jumped 4.2 percent to CNY8.81 (USD1.21).

Newcastle disease was recently found in a poultry farm in the south of the country, killing 7,000 chickens, MAPA said today. The highly contagious viral disease, characterized by lethargy and respiratory distress, has a death rate of 50 percent.

To prevent the disease from spreading and to protect international markets, Brazil, which is the world’s largest exporter of chickens, has decided to temporarily halt its exports of chickens, eggs as well as other poultry products to countries such as China, India, South Africa as well as Mexico, MAPA said.

The export ban will not have a big effect on Xiaoming, which mainly breeds chickens for eggs and does not sell a lot of chicken meat, an executive in the Yinchuan-based firm’s investor relations department said. But it will have a big impact on companies that breed white-winged broilers.

Chickens imported from Brazil are white-winged broilers, and Xiangjia breeds yellow-winged ones, so the export halt will not have a big effect on the Changde-based firm as its marketing channels are quite fixed, a company insider said.

Huaying breeds ducks and does not sell chickens, so the export pause has yet to affect it, an employee in the Xinyang-based company’s securities department said.

Last year, China imported 679,300 tons of Brazilian chicken. But in the first seven months, China’s imports from Brazil tumbled 29 percent year on year to 276,100 tons. China also imports chicken meat from other countries including the United States, Australia and Thailand.

White and yellow broiler meat production is forecast to decline this year due to the prolonged closure of poultry markets and new restraints placed by China on avian genetics to prevent outbreaks of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, according to a report released by the Global Agricultural Information Network in August last year.

But China's imports are expected to grow due to low production at home. This year chicken imports are forecast to climb 3 percent to 770,000 metric tons in order to bridge the supply gap.

Measures to contain Newcastle disease include the isolation of contaminated areas, destruction of infected birds as well as restrictions on the moving of the fowl and their eggs.

Editor: Kim Taylor