The largest fresh egg producer in the US has found bird flu in chickens at Texas and Michigan plants

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

The largest producer of fresh eggs in the U.S. said Tuesday it had temporarily halted production at a Texas plant after bird flu was found in chickens, and officials said the virus had also been detected at poultry facility in Michigan.

In Texas, Ridgeland, Mississippi-based Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. said in a statement that approximately 1.6 million laying hens and 337,000 pullets, about 3.6% of its total flock, were destroyed after the infection, avian influenza, was found at the facility in Parmer County, Texas.

The plant is on the Texas-New Mexico border in the Texas Panhandle about 85 miles (137 kilometers) southwest of Amarillo and about 370 miles (595 kilometers) northwest of Dallas.

“The Company continues to work closely with federal, state and local government officials and focused industry groups to mitigate the risk of future outbreaks and effectively manage the response,” according to the statement.

-snip-

BY KEN MILLER
Updated 5:51 PM EDT, April 2, 2024


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/bird-flu-texas-mississippi-chickens-dbae49f8786dda586036c1b86b9d0997

[Freethinker65]

1. And prices of eggs were just starting to stabilize. Damn.

[niyad]

2. 2 million birds is less than 4% of its stock? yikes.

Does it strike anybody else as weird to read, "In Texas, Mississippi-based Cal-Maine. . ."???

[jpak]

3. I used to work with Jack Decoster

Complete asshole

Yup

[ruet]

4. Hang on to Your Wallets.

...

[Marthe48]

5. Egg producers must have run through their nest egg

from the last infection.

Wish somebody would come up with a vaccination.

[NickB79]

6. Looks like eggs are going back to $5/dozen again

Good thing I refreshed my flock last year, culled a few of the oldest birds, and let a couple old hens hatch out new chicks that are starting to lay well now. Still have a few non-productive 5 yr old hens, but I'm too attached to them as pets to cull them.

[MissB]

7. Just added to my flock last week

We run an old-hen home here. I let my hens age and live out the rest of their lives after their egg producing years. Out of my flock of 9, about 5 regularly produce. One additional one sporadically produces eggs.

I ordered 8 more babies that arrived a week ago via USPS and picked up two more at the local feed store the same morning.

The hatchery didn’t have any black Australorp in last weeks batch so those are the two that I picked up. The others are speckled Sussex, green eggers and olive eggers.

10 little messy peeps. Adorable.

[niyad]

8. Thank goodness I have friends with chickens!!!

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

9. There go the price of eggs

[onetexan]

10. Will fully cooking the eggs make it safe to consume?

[TexasBushwhacker]

11. Yes. It is a respiratory virus

The one person who has tested positive for it had been working with infected dairy cattle.