H7N9 not only endanger human health but also hit stock marketing

Jiang, Yan; Zhang, Yi; Ma, Chunna; Wang, Quanyi; Xu, Chao; Donovan, Connor; Ali, Gholam; Xu, Tan; Sun, Wenjie

Our results show that the Avian Influenza Sector Index decreased with increasing counts of H7N9 numbers wherever they were less five. The daily reported number of H7N9 cases was also significantly associated with the closing price of the Avian Influenza Sector Index. Moreover, the trend of the predicted effect on this sector index was contrary to the Overall Market Index (Shanghai Composite Index). One plausible explanation is that the emergency measurements taken by local governments to deal with H7N9 together with encouragement by the Chinese central government to shut down local poultry markets and slaughter existing poultry after local H7N9 reporting [15, 16] , meant that a majority of people were less likely to consume poultry products due to a perceived threat of infection. There was also a corresponding hit on poultry breeding and slaughtering enterprises, most of which are large listed companies with large market shares. However, shutting down poultry markets is not a standard control measure in fighting a H7N9 outbreak and because of this, not all local governments have adapted closing markets as a standard response measure. As such, there was variation in responsiveness and speed at which different governments responded at the market level.