Bird flu found at Tyson Foods’ chicken supplier
According to the Associated Press, 73,500 chickens have been destroyed at a Tennessee chicken farm due to a bird flu outbreak, and 30 other farms within a six-mile radius have been quarantined.
According to the Associated Press, 73,500 chickens have been destroyed at a Tennessee chicken farm due to a bird flu outbreak, and 30 other farms within a six-mile radius have been quarantined. The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) said the chickens were destroyed at the facility and will not enter the food system. The Tennessee breeder supplies its birds to Tyson Foods, which said that it doesn’t expect its chicken business to be disrupted.
“We’re responding aggressively, and are working with state and federal officials to contain the virus,” said Tyson in a company release. “Out of an abundance of caution, we test all Tyson-owned flocks for the virus before they leave the farm, and we know the results before they’re processed. Should any flock be diagnosed with highly pathogenic avian influenza, farms are immediately quarantined and birds from them are not processed.”
Tennessee’s Dept. of Agriculture is not identifying the farm where the chickens were destroyed, saying only that it is in the state’s Lincoln County. Only one commercial chicken farm in Alabama was within the six-mile radius, the state said, and all the birds there tested negative for the flu.
The USDA issued a release on March 7 identifying the subtype of the H7 avian influenza found on the farm as “North American wild bird lineage H7N9 HPAI” based upon full genome sequence analysis of the samples. The agency also stressed that this is “NOT the same as the China H7N9 virus that has impacted poultry and infected humans in Asia. While the subtype is the same as the China H7N9 lineage that emerged in 2013, this is a different virus and is genetically distinct from the China H7N9 lineage.”