The bird flu has struck an egg-laying operation in Iowa owned by prominent Minnesota businessman Glen Taylor, and it could be the single largest casualty yet of the lethal virus sweeping the Upper Midwest poultry industry.
The Iowa Department of Agriculture said Thursday that there was an initial positive test at an egg-laying operation in northwestern Iowa with an estimated 5.5 million birds. Rembrandt Enterprises, one of the nation’s largest egg producers, confirmed the operation is its Rembrandt, Iowa, facility.
Taylor owns Rembrandt, as well as the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Star Tribune.
Also on Thursday, wildlife regulators announced that a hawk in western Minnesota is the state’s first wild bird to test positive for the bird flu, adding more mystery to the virus’ spread.
And three more Minnesota turkey farms were reported stricken by the flu, bringing the number of afflicted farms to 70 and the number of bird deaths to almost 4 million — about 8 percent of the state’s annual turkey production.
In Iowa, even before the Rembrandt disclosure, the H5N2 bird flu this week was confirmed at four other egg-laying farms. Without the Rembrandt farm, the U.S. Department of Agriculture placed the number of doomed chickens in that state at 10 million, about 17 percent of the state’s layer hens. Iowa is the nation’s largest source of eggs; Minnesota is the biggest U.S. turkey producer.
At the Rembrandt facility, the avian flu has been found in one barn containing about 250,000 hens, said Jonathan Spurway, the company’s vice president of marketing and optimization. “It is isolated in that barn.”
The post Rembrandt Foods egg farm could be single largest operation hit by bird flu appeared first on Trunews:.
from Trunews: http://ift.tt/1Q51QIT
via IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment