Two million hens to be destroyed in Minnesota over bird flu concerns
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 19 May, 2015, 3:33am
UPDATED : Tuesday, 19 May, 2015, 3:33am
Associated Press in Minneapolis
A flock of turkeys at a Minnesota poultry farm. Photo: AP
One of the largest US egg producers says it will destroy two million egg-laying hens in the central state of Minnesota due to a deadly bird flu virus.
The development at the Minnesota chicken farm brings the total of affected birds to 35 million in 15 states, with Minnesota and Iowa poultry flocks having been hit the hardest.
The chickens will be destroyed in the next four weeks at Rembrandt Enterprises farm in Renville, the Star Tribune reported on Saturday.
The company's vice-president of marketing, Jonathan Spurway, said one barn holding about 200,000 birds was infected, but the entire flock will be killed as a precaution.
Chickens at the farm have tested "presumptive positive" for the disease "despite the Herculean efforts of Rembrandt's employees to keep our facilities virus-fee," Spurway said.
Rembrandt Enterprises suffered an outbreak in its Rembrandt, Iowa, facility on May 1, contaminating one barn housing about 250,000 hens. A third plant in Thompson, Iowa hasn't been affected.
"We're doing everything we possibly can [to protect flocks], and we don't know of anyone who's doing anything we're not already doing," Spurway said. "The industry is lost for words."
