With the protests over fuel prices now past their fifth day and no solution in sight, meat group ABPA said the number of poultry and pork processing plants that had stopped production for lack of feed and storage space had risen to 152 units from 120 units, affecting more than 220,000 workers.
"The government must intervene in a quick and strong manner," ABPA said, adding that 1 billion chickens and other fowl and 20 million hogs could die from hunger in the next few days.
Santa Catarina state-based meat group Sindicarne warned of the imminent threat of "a massive loss of biological assets in Brazil's main producing regions."
The state slaughters about a third of Brazil's hogs and 15 percent of its chickens. The risk stemming from mass livestock deaths will cause "an unpredictable sanitary hazard," Sindicarne said.
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