Cargill Special Report - Cargill Meat Solutions

SPECIAL REPORT
May 2006
CARGILL NEWS
The Facts About Avian Influenza
Inside
• The bird flu problem
• Bio-security expertise
at Sun Valley Thailand
• Pandemic scenariosCBuilding

D I R E C T I O N S
SECURITY THROUGH UNDERSTANDING
BY DAVE LARSON, Executive Vice President
The media is full of stories about Avian
Influenza, or bird flu, and many emphasize
the what if scenario of the virus mutating
to easily infect humans. That is a concern.
While we need to prepare for this possibility,
it is far from certain that it will ever
happen.
We also should be concerned about misguided
responses and unnecessary fear.
This simply channels energy away from
solving problems. A productive response
starts with understanding.
Back in 2004, there was some media
frenzy over bovine spongiform
encephalopathy (BSE), commonly called
Mad Cow disease. Within weeks of the outbreak,
I interviewed Dr. Will Hueston,
director of the Center for Animal Health
and Food Safety at the University of
Minnesota. We discussed the problem on
“The Cattle Show,” a program on a satellite
network that reaches 28 million homes
across North America.
The program received a tremendous
response from viewers. Many felt it was the
first time they were getting a clear expla-
nation of the facts about BSE. By providing
the facts, we were able to help cattle producers
make sure that they were not contributing
to the problem.
So what are the facts about Avian
Influenza? First, as its name implies, it is a
bird disease. It does not easily transmit
from birds to humans. Although the virus
named H5N1 has been around for 10 years,
fewer than 200 people are known to have
become sick. Almost all these people lived
2 CARGILL NEWS SPECIAL REPORT DIRECTIONS
in close proximity to backyard flocks and
failed to take basic sanitary precautions.
Sadly, about half of them died.
To quote Dr. Hueston: “Thankfully, this
bird flu does not easily transfer from birds
to humans. If you don’t have direct contact
with sick poultry, the risk of contracting
this bird flu appears to be very close to
zero.”
But as a bird flu, this virus is deadly to
domesticated poultry. Without proper biosecurity,
bird flu can spread rapidly among
birds and poultry. Most infected flocks are
virtually wiped out within 36 hours.
Does this mean poultry meat is unsafe?
No. First, because wild birds spread the
virus, outdoor flocks are the most vulnerable.
The modern poultry industry raises its
birds indoors – in part to protect them
from exposure to wild birds. Using an array
of sanitary safeguards, our poultry business
in Thailand has shown that it is possible
to avoid infections even while operating
in the midst of an outbreak. It is likely that
most commercial flocks in countries like
the United States, Canada and Brazil will
“We are preparing for
situations that we once
felt were unthinkable.”
be protected even if bird flu arrives via wild
birds.
But what if a commercial flock were to
become infected? The poultry industry –
with Cargill helping to lead the way – has
developed and uses multiple tests to avoid
processing infected birds, or even letting
infected birds into the plant site. The very
fact that this virus is so lethal to domestic
flocks makes it highly unlikely that infected
birds would go undetected. Commercial
flocks are valuable, and their health is
monitored on a daily basis.
But still, what if meat from infected
birds somehow ended up in grocery
stores? Good sanitation and proper
cooking will protect you. If you prepare the
poultry using the standard precautions you
use now – washing your hands, cleaning
surfaces, not reusing plates or utensils that
came in contact with raw poultry and
cooking it to 160 F (70 C) – you will be
fine. Heat kills this virus.
We can use bio-security and food safety
measures to protect our facilities, yet
Avian Influenza will still have an economic
impact on Cargill’s businesses. Some consumers
will become very concerned and
stop eating poultry. We already have seen
significant drops in poultry demand in
Europe. Beyond our poultry-processing
businesses, decreasing demand for poultry
will affect our animal nutrition business
and even our global grain trade. Our
farmer suppliers will be affected, as will
many of our customers. We are going to
see economic disruptions for a while.
Education can mitigate these effects.
Cargill is helping to provide education to

suppliers, customers and government authorities
around the world. Our Cargill Animal Nutrition
people in China, for example, have educated tens
of thousands of Chinese farmers on how to keep
their flocks safe. Cargill’s experts in bio-security
have provided counsel in countries like
Mozambique. We have worked with McDonald’s
and sponsored an international conference in
Bangkok on the control of Avian Influenza in
Southeast Asia.
The situation is likely to worsen before it
improves. After almost 10 years of being confined
to Asia, the virus has spread rapidly to Russia,
Eastern Europe, Western Europe, the Middle East
and Africa in less than a year. I believe it is only a
matter of time before bird flu becomes a global
problem.
Cargill is taking steps to improve its own understanding
of the problem. A special global task force
is making sure that our operations are well protected
and that we understand the economic
impact of the disease. The people on this task force
will be the experts in Cargill, and part of their
charge is providing understanding to employees all
over the world.
That understanding includes the possibility –
remote, I believe – that the bird virus will mutate to
become a human virus. Nevertheless, we are
preparing for situations that we once felt were
unthinkable. This preparation will make us a
stronger organization, whether the threat is human
pandemics, terrorist attacks or other horrors.
In a crisis, Cargill will have unique responsibilities.
Our expertise in bio-security and the food
supply chain will be vital. Our corporate purpose –
being the global leader in nourishing people – will
never be more important. Using the threat of Avian
Influenza as a model, we are becoming a more
knowledgeable, more thoughtful and better prepared
organization.
It starts with turning information into understanding,
and then understanding into action. �
A Message To Cargill Employees
Cargill takes the issue of Avian Influenza (AI) very seriously.
A global Avian Influenza Task Force has been working on the
issue for the past 18 months. Regional taskforces also are at
work – particularly in Asia and Europe – to provide informa-
tion to employees, customers and suppliers.
The best defense is an approach anchored in a clear
understanding of the scientific facts. There is a lot of data and
information in the media and online. We hope this Special
Report will help you turn that data and information into
understanding about Avian Influenza and what Cargill is
doing to respond to the problem. We also want you to
understand what Cargill cannot do, and what you can do to
protect yourself and your family.
We hope you find this report helpful. Questions are
welcome. You can send questions to airesources@cargill.com,
or ask your manager to do it for you. An internal site with
extensive information on Avian Influenza can be found at:
http://airesources.cargill.com
Richard Frasch, Bonnie Raquet,
AI Taskforce co-chair AI Taskforce co-chair
CONTENTS
2 DAVE LARSON: THE VIEW FROM CORPORATE LEADERSHIP
4 WHAT TO DO ABOUT BIRD FLU?
8 UNDER CONTROL IN THE HOT ZONE
14 CONSULTING HELP IN MOZAMBIQUE
16 COPING WITH THE UNTHINKABLE
CONTENTS
CARGILL NEWS SPECIAL REPORT
3

It started with

What to do about Bird Flu?
BY MARK KLEIN
one goose.
The “it” is a potent strain of Avian
Influenza called H5N1. Scientists discovered
H5N1 in 1996 in a dead goose in the
Guangdong Province of China. In the
ensuing 10 years, millions of birds have died
or have been destroyed. Some scientists
worry that H5N1 could mutate into a form
that would allow it to efficiently transfer
from human to human.
With poultry operations worldwide,
Cargill has dealt for years with Avian
Influenza, or bird flu. In Thailand, where
H5N1 was endemic, Cargill’s strict bio-security
measures kept the virus out of its commercial
flocks north of Bangkok.
While Cargill has the skills to handle a
bird flu crisis – keeping its flocks and
employees as safe as possible – a mutation
in the virus that could infect humans with
the flu is a whole different dilemma. If that
were to happen, the problem would no
longer be bird flu. A mutation to a human
flu opens the door to a global pandemic.
While no one can predict whether a pandemic
might occur or how severe it might
be, Cargill has decided the company needs
to be prepared. In light of natural disasters
like the Pacific tsunami and terrorist attacks
like 9/11, Cargill’s leadership saw the need
for the company to be prepared for other
catastrophic challenges.
“We need to develop an organizational
preparedness and response to everything
not pleasant – hurricanes, tsunamis, terrorism
and localized disease outbreaks,” said
Richard Frasch, a leader of the Ag Producer
Services/Salt and Emerging Business plat-
forms, who co-chairs the Cargill Avian
Influenza Task Force with Bonnie Raquet,
corporate vice president of Public Affairs.
Creating scenarios
The task force was formed in the second
quarter of 2005 to look at how bird flu or a
human pandemic flu could affect Cargill.
The Cargill Leadership Team (CLT)
created the task force to build the
company’s understanding about how the
issue could affect the company, its employees
and other stakeholders and to establish
broad policies that can be carried out at the
regional or local level.
“There is all this information people are
seeing and hearing about in the media,”
Frasch said. “Information itself can be
meaningless. We want employees to understand
that information in its proper context.
The role of the task force is to help transfer
this ocean of information into understanding.
Avian Influenza is going to be something
that will be in the news for a while.”
Supporting the task force is a growing list
making up the “Experts Group,” which
includes a worldwide group of Cargill specialists
in food safety, human resources,
public affairs, law and employee health and
safety.
“Cargill was early in realizing that it
should take planning around the future of
H5N1 seriously,” said Steve Aldrich, who is
president of bio-era, which stands for Bio
Economic Research Associates, a Cargill
consultant.
One of the first actions of the task force
and Experts Group was to create scenarios
around Avian Influenza,.
“Scenario planning is especially useful for
WHAT TO DO ABOUT BIRD FLU?
dealing with conditions of fundamental
uncertainty,” Aldrich said. “And the future
of H5N1 is fundamentally uncertain.
“When scenario planning is done well, it
provides a shared conceptual framework
and shared language for understanding and
interpreting events as they unfold,” Aldrich
said. “This should improve individual and
organizational confidence, response time
and adaptability.”
First meeting in August 2005, the Task
Force and Experts Group developed five
scenarios. In the first three scenarios, H5N1
continues to spread in poultry. There are no
efficient human-to-human infections, but
concerns about that grow.
The three animal disease scenarios are:
“The Slow Burn”: Avian Influenza
remains a global bird disease. H5N1 is
endemic in poultry. (This essentially is
the current situation, as of this
writing.)
“China Florescence”: H5N1
explodes in a major country. China was
used as an example, but it could be
anywhere. Supplies of animal proteins
for human food grow short in some
regions. Regional political tensions
grow.
“Cascade”: A number of animal diseases
emerge simultaneously, causing
disruptions in animal protein supplies
for human food.
Avian Influenza’s external risks to Cargill
are many. While cooked poultry is safe to
eat, some consumers shy away from eating
poultry when the news proclaims the arrival
of H5N1 in their country. Declines in poultry
consumption can reduce demand for soybeans
and other feed ingredients. If cus-
CARGILL NEWS SPECIAL REPORT
5

6
tomers unduly panic, that could make the
situation worse. Cargill feels an obligation
to provide education to both customers and
government authorities to help them make
the best decisions.
Cargill’s expertise in bio-security makes
it unlikely that its own flocks or production
plants would be infected. The experience at
Cargill’s Sun Valley Poultry operation in
Thailand supports that confidence.
“The place to fight Avian Influenza is on
the farm,” said Mike Robach, vice president
of Corporate Food Safety Regulatory Affairs
and a member of the Experts Group. “If we
keep it to an animal health issue, we reduce
the risks of Avian Influenza becoming a
human health issue. Cargill is being a global
leader in the effort to reduce risk.”
Human scenarios
In the last two scenarios, H5N1 mutates into
a human form. It is no longer bird flu; it is
human pandemic flu. As a pandemic, it
affects the world, not just a region.
The two human disease scenarios are:
“Breaking Apart”: Governments
invoke nationalistic measures and close
borders. International cooperation
breaks down. Global financial markets
collapse.
“Emerging Order”: The public and
private sectors collaborate to manage
the crisis. New frameworks for monitoring
and responding are created,
strengthening the ability to respond to
emerging disease threats.
“The role of the task force
is to help transfer this
ocean of information into
understanding. Avian
Influenza is going to be
something that will be in
the news for a while.”
Richard Frasch, co-chair of Cargill’s Avian Influenza Task Force
“All businesses, not just those connected
to the poultry industry, would be affected if
a pandemic occurs from H5N1 or some
other source,” Robach said. “That’s what the
preparedness planning is all about.”
A pandemic is an epidemic that becomes
widespread. Pandemics have been recorded
since Hippocrates (470 B.C. - 410 B.C.). At
least 10 pandemics have been recorded in
the last 300 years.
In the 20 th century, there were three
pandemics: the 1918 Spanish flu; the 1957
Asian flu and the 1968 Hong Kong flu. The
1918 pandemic was the most severe, with
an estimated 50 million to 100 million
people dying worldwide. The other two pandemics
of the 20 th century were much less
severe, with one million deaths in 1957 and
2 million in 1968.
Frasch said that Cargill can’t predict
whether a pandemic might occur. “But we
can prepare,” he said. “What we’re trying to
CARGILL NEWS SPECIAL REPORT WHAT TO DO ABOUT BIRD FLU?
do is transform information into understanding
and develop an organizational nimbleness.
We have an obligation to our
employees, shareholders, customers and
others to provide leadership.”
Central to the planning is the continued
existence of Cargill, which Frasch refers to
as the survivability of the enterprise.
“If the enterprise doesn’t exist, we can’t
take care of employees, shareholders, customers,
communities and others,” Frasch
said. “Cargill is not bricks and mortar. It has
a soul made up of 140,000 employees who
chose to work together. We need to do
everything we can to assure that 140,000
people can come to work tomorrow.”
While Cargill needs to prepare for a possible
pandemic, there are some responsibilities
the company cannot assume.
“Cargill is not going to be the expert on a
human pandemic the way we are an expert
on the animal disease,” Frasch said. “But we
want to make sure that we have access to
the experts. It will be organizations like the
World Health Organization that will be
making the critical decisions on issues like
travel restrictions.”
Similarly, Cargill is not going to wade into
the medical field. The company won’t be
stockpiling anti-viral drugs like Tamiflu ® for

a variety of reasons. Not only is its effectiveness
on a new human strain in question,
but the global shortage of the medicine
makes stockpiling nearly impossible.
Cargill will promote steps every person
should practice to avoid getting sick, such
as proper hand hygiene and coughing etiquette.
“But we are not going to give
medical advice,” Frasch said. “We are not
going to get between you and your physician.”
Contingency planning
Bonnie Raquet, who co-chairs the task force
with Frasch, said that Avian Influenza provides
a model for planning for circumstances
most people don’t like to consider.
“This is about planning for the unthinkable,”
she said. “The value is in transforming a lot
of information into ideas we can act on.”
The Asia Pacific geography has dealt with
Avian Influenza longer than other regions
and began the process of reviewing the
Business Continuity Process in March 2006.
“A potential threat of Avian Influenza,
which could lead to human pandemic flu, is
an incident that could impact our ability to
continue normal business operations,” said
Paul Conway, regional director for the Asia
Pacific geography. “However, Avian
Influenza isn’t the only incident that can
cause disruption. We need to have Business
Continuity Plans prepared by each business
unit and function that could be applicable to
other potential threats, such as natural disasters,
major economic crisis or terrorist
attacks.”
Cargill has done a good job of having
crisis plans at the facility level, but Business
Continuity Plans will have to go beyond
that. “Think not just of your facility or location,
but also across business units plus
supply chains,” Conway said.
All business unit and platform leaders
have been encouraged to begin assessing
their preparedness. “We urged them to take
a careful look at their existing crisis management
plans and update, adapt or create
new ones to be able to effectively manage
the impact of Avian Influenza,,” said Lee
Skold, a task force member and leader of
the Retail Food Service Solutions Platform.
“We also need to get a better awareness
of the economic impact,” he said. “We need
to further understand the cash and overall
financial impact for each BU.”
Planning for events that are “not pleasant,”
as Frasch put it, will be a process that
will take some time. But that work shouldn’t
be seen as just another corporate initiative.
“We would be doing a disservice to say
this is just another initiative,” Frasch said.
“You could hope that it is just another initiative,
but hope isn’t good enough now, and
we have to be prepared.” �
“If we keep it to an animal
health issue, we reduce
the risks of Avian
Influenza becoming a
human health issue.
Cargill is being a global
leader in the effort to
reduce risk.” Members of Cargill’s
WHAT TO DO ABOUT BIRD FLU?
Avian Influenza Task Force
• Paul Conway, Regional Director, Asia
Pacific, Singapore
• Jeral d’Souza, Regional Controller,
Asia Pacific, Singapore
• Richard Frasch, Platform Leader, Ag
Producer Services/Salt Platform and
Emerging Business Platform. Task
Force co-chair.
• David MacLennan, Platform Leader,
Risk Management and Financial
Services Platform and Cargill Meat
Solutions Platform.
• Bonnie Raquet, Function Leader,
Public Affairs. Task Force co-chair.
• Frank Sims, Corporate Vice
President, Transportation and
Supply Chain Solutions
• Lee Skold, Platform Leader, Retail
and Food Service Solutions
Platform.
CARGILL NEWS SPECIAL REPORT
7

Employees at Sun Valley Thailand
conducted one of a series of
tests at the plant to detect signs
of bird flu.

UNDER CONTROL
IN THE HOT ZONE
Strict bio-security measures have kept the Sun Valley Thailand chicken business free
of Avian Influenza problems despite being in the midst of the outbreak.
Editor’s note: “The Slow Burn” is one of the
scenarios considered by the Cargill Avian
Influenza Task Force. Essentially, that is the
current situation in much of Asia, where Avian
Influenza is a bird virus that has struck backyard
flocks and endangers commercial poultry
businesses. Cargill has the skills and expertise to
cope with this scenario, providing a model for
the industry. Nothing illustrates that better than
the work of Sun Valley Thailand, which has
maintained its chicken business despite being in
a location where the virus was endemic in backyard
flocks.
SARABURI, Thailand – Driving to the Sun
Valley Thailand (SVT) facility, about 100
kilometers north of Bangkok, it is easy to
see how a disease like Avian Influenza (AI)
threatens this country. Even more common
than the Buddhist temples – houses of
worship for 95 percent of Thailand’s residents
– are open-air homes with residents
living alongside, or even with, chickens,
ducks and geese.
Backyard flocks are susceptible to a virus
BY ELIZABETH CONLON / PHOTOS BY PALANI MOHAN
spread by wild birds, and the proximity of
humans to such flocks adds to the chance
that individuals may contract bird flu.
Nobody was more acutely aware of the
potential problem than SVT, which processes
1.3 million chickens a week and employs
7,000 people in its Saraburi plant in the
countryside north of Bangkok.
Despite its location in a hot zone for
Avian Influenza, SVT has had zero diseased
birds – a testimony to the power of biosecurity
measures for controlling the
current manifestation of the disease.
When the first outbreak occurred in
Thailand in 2004, SVT used the unfortunate
event as an opportunity to educate its
employees about the disease and necessary
protective measures. Today, employees
observe some new procedures while calmly
going about their jobs.
“It is not a worry,” said Yupa Suamuang, production
manager at the plant. “The employees
are taught how to protect themselves.”
Sukande Boonfu is an SVT veterinarian
who visits contract poultry farms. When
UNDER CONTROL IN THE HOT ZONE
asked if it is scary to be in close contact
with the birds, she said she is not worried.
“It is not easy to infect humans. Because I
wear the protective gear, I am not afraid of
touching the birds,” Boonfu said.
To protect its flocks, its neighboring
farms and, most importantly, its employees
from bird flu, SVT has focused its efforts on
three areas: isolation, traffic control and
hygiene.
Cargill veterinarian Sukande Boonfu (left) and Dr.
Boonprom Enkvetchakul, senior quality assurance
manager, talked outside the newly constructed Cargill
lab, where all of the testing of birds for disease occurs.
CARGILL NEWS SPECIAL REPORT
9

10
It’s not hard to see SVT’s commitment to
bio-security. The lunchroom appears to be
divided by a giant floor-to-ceiling mirror.
Upon closer examination, the wall is not a
mirror at all, but a glass wall, separating the
cafeteria and its employees into two parts.
Those working in high-risk areas are segregated
even in the lunchroom.
Most modern food processing plants separate
the “clean” (finished product) and
“dirty” (raw material) sides of the plant.
SVT has taken this a step further by isolating
all parts of the business that breed and
grow chickens (known as live bird production)
from the processing facility. Visitors
are not allowed in the growing areas – no
exceptions.
When the Cargill News team asked for a
visit to SVT’s ultra-modern hatchery,
Bancha Areepong, processing director at
the plant replied, “I can’t even go there!”
Only employees who work in the live bird
production area are allowed in that part of
the operation.
SVT’s live bird production operations
include 170 contract broiler farms, 18
company-owned broiler farms, five pullet
farms and four breeder farms. All operations
have strict security measures in place,
including tight traffic control.
Relying on many contract farms that are
not owned and operated by Cargill requires
extra caution. Before Avian Influenza, SVT
would use any contract farm with space to
raise chickens for the plant. Since the outbreak,
it has greatly increased its standards
for selection. “Things have changed since
Anytime Sun Valley Thailand (SVT) employees enter the
plant, they go though bio-security procedures that
have become a routine part of the job. They start by
donning protective clothing. An SVT trainer (below)
trains new employees in how to wear the clothing.
AI,” said Dr. Thiti Praditpetchara, director
of agriculture at SVT. “Now, the most important
criteria for choosing farmers is the right
attitude and right mindset that agrees with
how SVT does things.”
Before a farm can earn a contract, SVT
staff, led by Dr. Boonprom Enkvetchakul,
senior quality assurance manager, audits
the farm for cleanliness and security measures.
If the farmer meets the standards,
SVT staff educates the farmer on appropriate
bio-security procedures. An SVT veterinarian
visits each farm every 10 days to
examine the health of the birds.
These are not backyard flocks. Every
grower farm operates a closed chicken
housing system with full environmental
control, so all birds in a particular flock or
house remain together from the time of
birth to the time of slaughter. All of the
chicken houses are isolated from wild birds,
pests and other animals to prevent the
spread of disease.
The Testing Laboratory
Since the Avian Influenza outbreak, SVT has
constructed a state-of-the-art lab to test all
flocks. This is insurance that any diseased
bird will be detected and eliminated before
it reaches the processing facility.
Once a bird reaches full maturity and is
10 days away from slaughter, a Cargill veterinarian
takes a swab test of the animal.
The sample is cultured and tested for any
sign of the Avian Influenza virus. Sixty birds
from each flock are tested before the birds
are certified as disease free and ready to
On their way in or out of the plant, employees walk
through disinfectant.
CARGILL NEWS SPECIAL REPORT UNDER CONTROL IN THE HOT ZONE
move to the processing facility.
Thailand’s Department of Livestock
Development (DLD) requires this test, and
all companies must perform and report
their data before they can receive a permit
to move birds to the processing facility.
After Thailand’s outbreak, the DLD partnered
with companies like Cargill to develop
strict security measures to keep Thailand’s
commercial poultry industry free from
disease.
At 48 hours to slaughter, SVT performs
yet another test – this one not required by
government authorities. The real-time
genetic test uses a process called polymerase
chain reaction (PCR), which hunts
for the H5N1 virus in ribonucleic acid – a
gene building block. Results are almost
immediate and are highly reliable. SVT
introduced the test to Thailand.
“The more security measures we can take
to ensure our flocks are free of disease
before slaughter, the better,” said Pairoj
Napawan, operations director at SVT.
SVT veterinarians closely monitor the
physical condition of the birds throughout
the 42-day growing period. At slaughter, the
swab test is completed once again, and
samples are tested by SVT and also sent to
the DLD.
Control measures are apparent even in
gaining access to the lab, which was built in
2004. When entering the lab, every vehicle
is sprayed with disinfectant by the bio-security
guard, a constant presence at every
SVT facility. Only after changing shoes two
different times, taking a full shower with
Further security is provided when rollers are used to
de-lint employees’ uniforms, both front…

A Cargill lab technician tested
eggs to make sure Cargill flocks
are disease free.
… and back. Squeeze bottles hold disinfectant.
Hand washing is a key step in the bio-security process
– a step everyone should take in their own homes.
UNDER CONTROL IN THE HOT ZONE
The hand washing takes place in two different
disinfectant sinks to ensure maximum cleanliness.
CARGILL NEWS SPECIAL REPORT
11

12
disinfectant soap and shampoo and donning
a lab coat, hair net, hat, glasses and mask
are employees allowed into the facility.
After working for the day, the employees
then complete the process all over again to
leave the lab.
In fact, SVT extends its prevention measures
to all farms within 5 kilometers of every
SVT facility and farm – whether or not those
farmers are SVT contract growers. These
tend to be the small, backyard farms found
along many of the rural roads.
One kilometer from an SVT facility,
Cargill employees dressed in full protective
CARGILL NEWS SPECIAL REPORT UNDER CONTROL IN THE HOT ZONE
gear, with only their eyes exposed, sprayed
one such farm with disinfectant. “The
spraying makes me feel safer,” said farmer
Payom Onmahnkong. He said Cargill sprays
his farm every 15 days, and a DLD veterinarian
comes once a week to examine the
physical condition of his birds.
The processing side
Although the Avian Influenza virus poses its
greatest danger in live birds, SVT keeps up
the bio-security on its processing side. The
plant at Saraburi follows strict bio-security
measures to keep its product clean and its
This farm does not provide chickens to Sun Valley, but because it
is located within five kilometers of the plant, Sun Valley
employees in bio-hazard suits provide free disinfectant services.
The farmer, Payom Onmahnkong (above), keeps his poultry in
wicker baskets. Such open, backyard operations are the most
vulnerable to Avian Influenza carried by wild birds – one reason
that such operations do not qualify as suppliers to Sun Valley.

7,000 employees safe. Besides having many
areas within the building restricted between
high and low risk employees, they are
required to wear full body suits with hairnets,
glasses, boots, gloves and masks.
Disinfecting hands and boots is done each
time an employee enters or leaves the processing
floor.
Further security is provided since SVT
exports cooked chicken product. SVT
switched from raw to cooked product to
meet customers’ needs, but cooking also
has the effect of killing the virus. Within the
last three years, two new production lines of
Sun Valley started as a producer of raw
chicken products in Thailand, but it has
moved up the value chain to supply
cooked product. All of Sun Valley’s
exports are cooked chicken. Heat kills
the Avian Influenza virus, so the cooking
serves as another bio-security measure.
cooked chicken products have been added,
bringing the total to seven. A new building
is used exclusively for cooked product.
Even more investment is likely in the
future, since SVT sees cooked product as
its real niche in the marketplace.
“AI sped up the process, but the move to
cooked products has been very strategic for
Sun Valley,” said Areepong. The change has
allowed Sun Valley to maintain a global
supply chain for key customers.
From the incubating egg to grower farms
to the cooked chicken nugget, SVT has provided
bio-security for every step of its
UNDER CONTROL IN THE HOT ZONE
supply chain. Its attention even extends to
work with the Thai government and to
helping area farmers who don’t supply SVT.
One might think there is not much more to
do, but Dr. Praditpetchara disagrees.
“Now comes the real challenge,” he says.
“Discipline to continue following the practices
we have developed and to not settle
for complacency.” �
CARGILL NEWS SPECIAL REPORT
13

14
CARGILL VOLUNTEER HELPS
MOZAMBIQUE PLAN FOR BIRD FLU
Working through TechnoServe, a non-profit supported by Cargill,
Mike Damasin helped an African country face a difficult reality.
Avian Influenza has been
much in the news these days
as a possible threat to trigger
the next worldwide human
flu pandemic. Mike Damasin,
corporate health and safety
manager, recently got a close
look at the potential problems as
part of a three-person team
helping to develop a response
plan for the Mozambican government.
“An outbreak of Avian
Influenza in a country like
Mozambique could be devastating,”
says Damasin, who
also serves on Cargill’s
internal Avian Influenza
Task Force. “About 60
percent of the 27 million birds
raised there annually are
‘free-range’ and the farmers
have very little knowledge of
bio-security measures. If
there was an outbreak, it
would be very difficult to stop
it from spreading.”
The greatest fear about Avian
Influenza is that the virus could
mutate and be readily transmitted
among humans.
Currently, the human cases
tend to involve situations like
humans handling birds that
have died from the flu.
The more imminent
danger, however, is the threat bird flu poses
to poultry flocks in countries ill-prepared to
detect and manage such disease outbreaks.
Addressing that scenario was Damasin’s job
in Mozambique.
The Mozambique team was brought togeth-
By Chuck Benda / Photos by Mike Damasin
A farming family in Mozambique
er by TechnoServe, a non-profit organization
founded in 1968 to foster the use of technology
to improve the productivity and economic
well-being of developing nations around the
world. Cargill has partnered with TechnoServe
for several years, providing financial assis-
CARGILL NEWS SPECIAL REPORT MOZAMBIQUE PLAN FOR BIRD FLU
tance, guidance through
membership on its board of
directors, and technical as
well as business expertise on a
project-by-project basis. In
addition to “loaning” Damasin
to TechnoServe, Cargill provided
$25,000 to help fund the
project.
“Mike brought his experience
on the human health and
safety side to the team,” said
Charity Hanif of TechnoServe.
“He knows how Cargill has
been addressing Avian
Influenza, so he brought international
best practices to the
table.”
Damasin and the
TechnoServe team members
spent a week in Mozambique.
They visited commercial
poultry operations, dropping
in on rural farmers and
formulating a preliminary
“culling plan.” The plan
included implementation
costs as well as compensation
of farmers.
The visit included stops at
a remote chicken farm run by
a farmer with three wives and
15 children, as well as a visit
to one of Mozambique’s
largest poultry producers.
“We put together a plan
that included three different scenarios: best
case, middle case, and worst case,” says
Damasin. “It didn’t take long to figure out
that a widespread outbreak would be
extremely difficult and expensive to
control.”

Because it is located
along major flyways of
migratory birds,
Mozambique is thought to
be at particular risk for an
outbreak of Avian
Influenza. Migratory
waterfowl tend to be
resistant to the viruses
but are believed to carry
and help spread them. In
poultry, the H5N1 virus
strain can be highly contagious,
resulting in nearly
100 percent mortality.
Standard control
measures include the
destruction of infected
birds along with the
quarantine of infected
farms. A widespread
outbreak in Mozambique
— where more
than 80 percent of the
20 million residents are
subsistence farmers
who rely on homegrown
chickens as an important
source of protein —
would likely have a significant
impact on the
country’s economy and
pose serious health
threats to its people.
When Damasin visited
Mozambique, Avian
Influenza had yet to be detected in Africa –
the continent that may be most vulnerable
to the disease. Since then, Avian Influenza
has been found in flocks in Nigeria.
Near the end of the TechnoServe team’s
visit, Damasin and his colleagues presented
A backyard farmer in Mozambique pulled up a tarp to reveal her chicken house.
their response plan, along with an overall
analysis of the risks associated with an Avian
Influenza outbreak. The audience included
representatives of the Mozambique government
and international agencies such as the
United States Agency for International
MOZAMBIQUE PLAN FOR BIRD FLU
Development and the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations.
As the team went through
details of the different scenarios,
the initial response seemed to be
mild shock, according to Damasin.
Not surprisingly, they reacted
favorably to the team’s suggestions
that Mozambique ought to zero in
on prevention and education.
“We encouraged the development
of regional teams for each
province,” says Damasin. “They
need to upgrade their prevention
and surveillance processes, focus on
education for district veterinarians
and farmers, and encourage
the adoption of modern bio-security
processes industry-wide.”
Although a week wasn’t much
time, Damasin left Mozambique
convinced that the TechnoServe
team had at least helped Mozambique
focus their resources where
they can do the most good. He
also left with a lot of hope for the
country’s future.
After a brutal civil war that
lasted from 1977 to 1992, Mozambique
began a transformation that
included multi-party elections and
a free-market economy. Today,
the country is at peace with
annual growth averaging 8 percent.
“What I was most impressed
about during my visit was everyone’s optimism
about the future of Mozambique,”
Damasin says. “It was an incredible opportunity
to meet these people and work with
them to raise their awareness of the risks
and overall level of preparedness.” �
CARGILL NEWS SPECIAL REPORT
15

16
CARGILL NEWS SPECIAL REPORT COPING WITH THE UNTHINKABLE
Photo by Lisa Vickstrom

Tran Ngoc-Thanh saw some of the worst
manifestations of Avian Influenza unfold
before his eyes.
“In 2004, Avian Influenza was a serious
problem in Vietnam,” said Ngoc-Thanh, who
is poultry project manager for Cargill Animal
Nutrition in Bien Hoa, Vietnam. “The media
talked about it almost every day.”
At that time, the H5N1 strain of Avian
Influenza had affected poultry in nearly
75 percent of Vietnam’s provinces. Avian
Influenza had its biggest impact on poultry
in Vietnam. It accounted for about half of
the approximately 200 people worldwide
who caught the virus. About half of those
who became ill later died.
“When we recognized that Avian
Influenza had come to Dong Nai province,
where our poultry farm is located, we
decided to close the farm,” Ngoc-Thanh
said. “We kept about 70 percent of our
employees at work for their own protection.
For nearly four months from January to the
end of April in 2004, the employees had to
stay on the farm. When the government
announced that Vietnam was free of Avian
Influenza, we allowed our employees to go
back home every day after work.”
It was a small preview of some of the disruption
that could occur if Avian Influenza affected
humans. In Vietnam, that problem came from
people living among backyard poultry and not
taking prudent sanitary precautions.
In addition to the hardship of not being
able to go home every day after work, the
Cargill employees in Vietnam had to cope
with knowing that some people were becoming
sick through close and repeated contact
with diseased birds or contaminated surfaces.
It was a stressful time, but the Cargill people
had the advantage of knowledge and understanding.
“Our employees all knew that our
birds were free of Avian Influenza, and they
understood that if there was no outbreak in
the farm, they were safe,” Ngoc-Thanh said.
Pandemic scenarios
Of any country, Vietnam came the closest to
the two scenarios the Cargill Avian Influenza
Task Force and Experts Group have developed
around human pandemic flu.
Pandemic flu is a global outbreak of
disease that occurs when a new influenza
virus appears in the human population. The
H5N1 is a strain with pandemic potential,
since it might ultimately adapt into a strain
that is contagious among humans. Once this
adaptation occurs, it will no longer be a bird
virus – it will be a human flu virus.
While efficient human-to-human transmission
of H5N1 Avian Influenza hasn’t
occurred, some scientists are concerned
that the mutation will eventually happen.
Other scientists insist that this development
is unlikely. What nobody knows is whether
a mutation may occur or the severity of a
new human virus.
As the Cargill task force and Experts
Group looked at human pandemic flu scenarios,
they assumed that a pandemic – whether
severe or not – would result in trade and
travel restrictions. Depending on the severity,
there would be increased absenteeism
and productivity worldwide. And the pandemic
would result in human deaths.
One scenario Cargill developed was called
“Breaking Apart.” In this pessimistic scenario,
governments and others fail to work
together to address Avian Influenza in
poultry. As international cooperation breaks
down, governments create nationalistic
measures, such as closing down borders. The
consequences of those actions could lead to
an erosion of the global financial markets.
The more “optimistic” pandemic scenario
is called “Emerging Order,” in which a
public-private partnership addresses Avian
Influenza in poultry and reacts swiftly if a
human-to-human mutation begins to occur.
The task force and Experts Group
decided to focus on the more optimistic
“Emerging Order” scenario after an informal
meeting involving a half dozen or so
people from Cargill, McDonald’s, the
COPING WITH THE
UNTHINKABLE
The greatest fear about Avian Influenza is that the virus will mutate so it can spread among humans.
Cargill is planning so it can be ready for such a worst-case scenario.
BY MARK KLEIN
COPING WITH THE UNTHINKABLE
University Minnesota’s Center for Animal
Health and Food Safety, the World Bank
and the OIE, which is the World
Organization for Animal Health.
“At the meeting, we all felt there was a
growing recognition that to be successful at
reducing the risks associated with bird flu
and a pandemic, we needed collaboration
across many entities – governments, intergovernmental
agencies, non-governmental
organizations, academia and private industry,”
said Mike Robach, Cargill vice president
of Corporate Food Safety Regulatory
Affairs.
To encourage collaboration, Cargill and
McDonald’s created a public-private partnership
called SSAFE, which stands for Safe
Supply of Affordable Food Everywhere.
“SSAFE is at the center of Cargill’s
efforts,” said Robach, who is vice president
CARGILL NEWS SPECIAL REPORT
17

18
of Corporate Food Safety Regulatory Affairs
and a member of the Experts Group. “It was
created through a public-private collaboration,
and it will be collaboration that will
drive us toward solutions.”
Global collaboration
“Traditionally, there wasn’t much collaboration
between intergovernmental agencies
and private industry,” said Dave Harlan,
member of the Experts Group and director
of global animal health and food safety in
Corporate Food Safety and Regulatory
Affairs. “The members of OIE, for example,
are governments, not businesses. But staying
in our own silos won’t provide solutions.”
One of the first actions of SSAFE was to
co-sponsor a November 2005 meeting in
Bangkok, Thailand, with OIE, the Food and
Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the
United Nations (UN), the World Bank and
others. About 60 representatives from food
companies, intergovernmental organizations
and non-governmental organizations met to
discuss how their expertise in food safety
and training could help stem Avian
Influenza.
“The McDonald’s and Cargill people are
very responsive to those of us from the UN
and government, saying, ‘We would like to
work with you,’” said David Nabarro, the UN ’s
New York-based avian flu coordinator. He
said that government organizations are
receiving cooperation from companies that
“have a vested interest in responding better
to Avian Influenza and preparing properly
for the pandemic.”
Nabarro’s comments “fit in with what we
were talking about in SSAFE, which is that
public-private collaboration will provide
solutions,” said Robach.
The Bangkok meeting paved the way for
the December 2005 International Ministerial
Pledging Conference on Avian and Human
Pandemic Influenza in Beijing, China. The
meeting also recognized the importance of a
coordinated global effort to address the
disease. A total of $1.9 billion was pledged
by attending countries to help affected
countries fight outbreaks of Avian Influenza
and assist neighboring countries in efforts to
prepare for any related human health issues.
Trade issues
Animal and human health issues aren’t the
only areas of concern. At times, animal
health issues prompt some countries to
impose import bans, but those can have
unintended consequences.
Banning poultry exports from countries
with bird flu in poultry, even when outbreaks
are not widespread, can reduce the
supply of meat globally and drive up prices.
Because of disease-related export restrictions,
internal meat prices rose to 10-year
highs in 2005, according to FAO.
“There was a growing
recognition that to be
successful in reducing the
risks associated with bird flu
and a pandemic, we needed
collaboration across many
entities – governments,
intergovernmental agencies,
non-governmental
organizations, academia and
private industry.”
Mike Robach
The OIE has standards against import
bans on poultry that do not distinguish
between infected birds and non-infected
birds. SSAFE has encouraged the animal
health organization to go a step further:
allow trade bans only for regions with an
animal health disease, not for entire countries.
This approach is called regionalization.
“As the world becomes a global family of
economies, we need to seek out new ideas
for disease management that safeguard
animal and human health without crippling
economies or creating unnecessary waste,”
Robach said.
One new approach is a variation on regionalization
called “compartmentalization.”
“Our poultry business in Thailand is, in a
sense, a region within a region,” Robach said.
“It is a compartment. This approach can
allow well-managed poultry businesses to
CARGILL NEWS SPECIAL REPORT COPING WITH THE UNTHINKABLE
continue to operate while poorly managed
ones in the same region would not.” [See
story on page 8 on Sun Valley Thailand.]
While disruptions of trade flows drove
global meat prices higher in 2005, unfounded
fears about bird flu were expected to
reduce global poultry consumption in 2006.
That reduced demand was expected to
reduce the value of poultry products, which
would affect poultry processors as well as
household livelihoods and rural employment
opportunities in developing countries.
Cooking kills the Avian Influenza virus.
Cooked poultry from a region or country
that has experienced bird flu would be safe
for consumption. SSAFE encouraged a
global standard for cooked poultry of 70°C.
“That would allow movement of cooked
poultry globally, and it will help get the
message out that cooked poultry is safe to
eat,” Harlan said.
Closing borders
If Avian Influenza began to mutate to a
human form – even in small clusters – some
countries may react by closing their borders
in a futile effort to keep the virus out.
“Isolation won’t solve the problem,”
Harlan said. “Closing borders might slow the
human virus down a little, but not forever.”
In today’s global market, closing borders
to goods and the people that deliver them
could ultimately hurt that country’s economy.
“People will want to have a job and a paycheck,”
Harlan said. “Closing borders could
shut down whole economies.”
A better approach is to inform people
about steps they can take to protect themselves
from viruses and disease. These
include basics like covering your mouth
when you cough, washing your hands and
staying home when you are ill.
“These steps are not going to prevent a
pandemic, but they could have a significant
impact on slowing the spread and buy more
time to develop a vaccine,” Harlan said.
Cooperation, education and common
sense could be the difference between a
“Breaking Apart” scenario and the more
manageable one of “Emerging Order.” The
latter scenario is where Cargill is concentrating
its efforts. �

THE GREAT PANDEMIC OF 1918
Toward the end of World War I, the
world experienced the worst pandemic flu
in more than 100 years. About one-fifth of
the world’s population suffered from the
flu, which reached every corner of the
world. The “Spanish Flu” killed more
people than the world war, with a global
death toll estimated at 50 million.
Pandemics have been recorded as
far back as 400 B.C. There were two
much milder influenza pandemics
following the Spanish Flu: the Asian Flu in
1957 and the Hong Kong Flu in 1968.
During 1918, the spread of troops
and mobilizations at army camps aided
the spread of the flu. In the United States,
public health departments distributed
gauze masks to be worn in public. Some
places took measures like forbidding
stores to hold sales and limiting funerals
to 15 minutes to minimize public contact.
One of the people affected by the
An emergency hospital in Fort Riley, Kansas, treated victims of the 1918 flu pandemic.
AP Photo/National Museum of Health and Medicine, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology.
safeguards was Cargill MacMillan, who
was attending Yale and was quarantined
during the Spanish Flu.
Scientists, using the body of a
Spanish Flu victim preserved in the
Alaskan permafrost, are piecing
together the genetic code of the 1918 flu,
a virus that shows similarities to the
current bird flu viruses. The research
might provide clues to help prevent the
next pandemic.
COPING WITH THE UNTHINKABLE
CARGILL NEWS SPECIAL REPORT
19

FOR MORE INFORMATION
For information from Cargill, go to:
Box 5625
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55440
http://airesources.cargill.com
Some other useful Websites include:
The World Health Organization of the United Nations
http://www.who.int/en/
Nature magazine
http://www.nature.com/nature/focus/avianflu/index.html
International Society for Infectious Diseases
http://www.promedmail.org/pls/promed/f?p=2400:1000
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