Brazil’s National Union of the Animal Feed Industry (Sindirações) said the country will produce slightly less animal feed than expected in 2025, according to a Reuters report.
This is due to a case of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) on a breeder farm in the south of the country in May. The H5N1 strain of the virus was detected in the municipality of Montenegro in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, one of the country’s most important poultry meat exporting states and its largest egg exporter.
Sindirações estimates animal feed and supplement production in Brazil will be 93.7 million tons (MT), compared with a projected 94 MT released in May before the HPAI case was reported.
The previous forecasts, suggested animal feed production, including concentrates and supplements, would rise by 3%. Broiler feed production, which accounts for a little over 40% of the industry’s output, was expected to grow by 2.7% to 37.9 million MT.
“Demand was mainly impacted by the pace of (chicken) exports, which were restricted due to embargoes following an avian influenza outbreak,” Ariovaldo Zani, the head of Sindiracoes, said in the Reuters report.
After the discovery of the presence of HPAI, birds at the breeder farm was depopulated, carcasses were destroyed and buried, fertile eggs were traced and destroyed, and disinfection was carried out, and the situation was considered resolved on June 18. Even though Brazilian poultry was declared free of HPAI in June, the virus is still striking wild birds in the country.
Brazil in recent years has consistently been the world’s largest exporter of poultry, and production of broiler meat and eggs broke new records in Brazil last year.
Data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) reveals that the country slaughtered 6.46 billion broilers in 2024, an increase of 2.7% in comparison with 2023 and the highest figure since records began in 1997.
This translated into production of 3.45 million metric tons of chicken meat, a 2.3% increase compared to 2023.
Egg production climbed to 6.67 billion dozen in Brazil last year, up by 10% in comparison to 2023.
Over the first quarter of 2025, the number of broilers slaughtered in Brazil grew by 2.3%, while egg output expanded by 5.6% or 1.16 billion dozen.
