Source: AP News via Yahoo
In a farm whose chickens pump out 1.4 million eggs a day, the place is more secure than most high security federal prisons. In fact, the first signs you see upon entering is a "STOP: BIOSECURE AREA" sign and very large fences topped with rather obvious razor wire.
The threat is the avian flu, and it's a major concern in the US--especially California, where a $2.5 billion poultry industry ranks among the top 10 producers nationwide for dinner chicken, turkey, and table egg output.
An outbreak of the deadly virus at one of these farms could cost the operator an excess of $10 million dollars easily. A big enough loss to put a major hurt on anyone's day to day operations.
HILMAR, Calif. -- Tom Silva's chickens pump out 1.4 million eggs a day, but his operation looks more like a prison than a farm.
To reach his hen houses, an intruder would have to scale eight-foot fences topped by razor wire, then sneak past surveillance cameras.
"Biosecurity" is the buzzword du jour at chicken, turkey and egg operations across the country. A bird flu pandemic sweeping through flocks in Southeast Asia and beyond has spurred American commercial farmers to tighten their defenses.
"This is certainly the biggest issue facing the industry today, no question about that," said Richard Lobb, spokesman for the National Chicken Council.
An example of the extreme precautions being taken at the Silva poultry complex:
Today, all trucks entering and exiting Silva's complex get an automated bath of ammonia-based disinfectant. Incoming drivers are asked where they've been and whether they've been exposed to poultry.
Every employee enters the site through a "dirty door" into a trailer that serves as a changing room. They swap their street clothes for pre-washed boots, hats and coveralls, then enter the hen houses through a "clean door." They reverse the process on the way out.
Various poultry companies even try to avoid each other on the road. They plot routes and stagger deliveries throughout the day, on the premise that the virus might jump from truck to truck.
The big rigs that rumble through the Central Valley most often bear the colorful logo of Foster Farms, which supplies dinner chickens primarily to California, Oregon and Washington consumers.
As a consumer of poultry product here in the United States, I'm glad that these steps are being taken. It shows that the threat is real, and those with a stake in the business are taking the threat of an epidemic here very seriously.
I do have to wonder if are our public officials and various agencies preparations are training up to the same standards and levels as those in the private sector?
Just going on things like the Hurricane Katrina response and other big recent natural disasters, I'm not optimistic about the current leadership's ability to plan and prepare for a bird flu epidemic.
For all of our sakes, I hope they prove me wrong.
Tags: [bird flu pandemic], [avian flu], [H5N1 virus], [poultry farms in the US are taking preparations seriously]
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