The company lost $455 million, or $1.22 per share, compared with a profit of $48 million, or 13 cents per share, a year ago.
Excluding the charge of $1.50 per share, profit was 28 cents per share.
Sales rose slightly to $7.21 billion.
The performance managed to beat analysts' expectations for a profit of 26 cents per share on revenue of $6.88 billion.
This marks the second consecutive quarter that the company's chicken business has been profitable. The industry is improving on falling commodity costs and production cuts, which help bolster pricing.
