The economic toll of avian flu on Minnesota’s poultry industry has climbed to nearly $650 million, according to new data from University of Minnesota Extension.
That is nearly double the estimate in May, when the disease was midway through its march through the state.
“That’s coming both from losses in the poultry production as well as from losses in poultry processing,” said Brigid Tuck, a senior analyst for Extension.
Minnesota farmers have lost more than 9 million chickens and turkeys to avian flu, and the total estimated cost is nearing the $870 million value of turkey sales last year.
Bird flu has mysteriously infected flocks at more than 100 Minnesota farms, from the Iowa border nearly to Canada. The state’s main poultry production zone in central Minnesota has been hit the hardest. In Kandiyohi County, the state’s leading turkey producer, the virus devastated about three dozen farms.
The university’s damage estimate includes about $250 million in direct losses to farmers.
“This has affected about a third of chickens that are laying eggs,” Tuck said, “and then (led to) about a 12 percent decrease in the number of turkeys.”
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