本帖最后由 choi 于 2-26-2023 13:47 编辑
-----------------------WSJ
After losing eight million egg-laying hens to avian influenza in 2015, Versova Management Co. spent tens of millions of dollars on laser systems, sound cannons and on-site worker showers to shield flocks from the virus spread by wild birds.
Versova lost another two million or so hens in the latest outbreak, showing the limits of costly industry protections.
“We’re fighting an epic battle,” said J.T. Dean, president of Versova, one of the five largest U.S. egg producers. “We have to be perfect.”
The avian flu has a nearly 100% mortality rate in chickens, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is so contagious that even a chance gust of wind can carry wild-bird droppings toward a barn vent and spread the virus inside, Mr. Dean said. Poultry farms routinely destroy entire flocks after a single case is found to try to prevent further spread.
Since February of last year, the avian flu has led to the death of around 58 million farm-raised birds in the U.S., the deadliest outbreak on record. It sent the price of turkey to record highs for Thanksgiving. Weeks later, egg prices hit their high.
Avian flu outbreaks have long been a risk in the chicken, turkey and egg businesses. In the past, though, the outbreaks subsided after a few months, easing price spikes. Some government officials, scientists and poultry industry executives now say the avian flu is likely to stick around, potentially keeping egg and turkey prices elevated for the foreseeable future.
The loss of poultry flocks to bird flu coincided with a broad rise in the cost of labor, en- ergy and livestock feed, squeezing consumers with higher grocery store prices.
More than 43 million egg-laying hens have died in the past year, making up about three-quarters of the total number of poultry lost. U.S. egg inventories were 29% lower in the final week of De- cember than at the start of 2022, according to the Agri- culture Department. The shortfall sent wholesale prices of Midwest large eggs to a record $5.46 a dozen in December, according to research firm Urner Barry.
Smaller egg producers, facing rising costs and the threat of new outbreaks, have been hesitant to restock farms at full capacity, also crimping supply, industry analysts said.
Large egg producers including Versova and publicly traded Cal-Maine Inc., egg processor and agriculture giant Cargill Inc., and family-run Hickman's Egg Ranch Inc., are all ramping up protections to try to limit their losses.
The virus can be spread to commercial flocks by workers stepping on wild-bird feces outside of a barn and spreading the virus inside with every step. Buzzards, wild ducks or pests that sneak into barns also can
spread the flu virus through mucus or saliva.
Egg farms now have procedures for washing and disinfecting trucks carrying feed to the chickens. They have upgraded barn ventilation and require workers to wear jumpsuits and booties.
Some farms are going as far as installing loud motion-detecting alarms known as sound cannons and brightly illuminated laser systems to shoo away wild birds without harming them. Workers have installed netting over lagoons and other spots where wild birds gather.
Bird-flu cases in commercial flocks slowed in January, with fewer than 500,000 bird deaths in January compared with more than 5 million in December, USDA data show. But agency officials have said the virus will likely resurge in spring, when wild birds migrate across the U.S.
"The threat of continued infection is out there," said Glen Hickman, chief executive of Hickman's Egg Ranch in Arizona. "We're going to have to develop a way to cope."
Guard the henhouse
Versova, based in Sioux Center, Iowa, has about 17 million egg-laying hens, making it one of world's largest egg processing companies.
Criag Rowles, who oversees Versova's protocols for disease prevention, said the company has been upgrading its farm facilities to defend against outbreaks. Barn complexes are being built with protective barriers and entryways.
Farmworkers entering Versova facilities are required to shower and change into freshly washed clothes before going inside the barns.
During the avian flu out break in 2015, only one of Versova's facilities was equipped with showers and other biosecurity measures. Since then, the company has upgraded 10 of its 13 facilities.
The company also has hired veterinarians and changed practices for cleaning feed spills to keep away wild birds. It installed vibrating mechanisms in the containers holding chicken feed to shake loose clogs without involving workers. Even those precautions haven't eliminated outbreaks. Mr. Dean said.
Egg-laying hens are more susceptible to contracting bird flu because they are kept producing for as long as a year, increasing their risk of infection compared with broilers, which are raised for meat and slaughtered within 10 weeks.
Starting this spring, Versova will work with the Agriculture Department's wildlife services to clear the area around barns to make it less attractive to wild birds, company officials said. The project is similar to the USDA joining with airports to clear runways, company officials said.
In October, workers at one of Versova's upgraded facilities in northern Iowa noticed an increase in the number of dead birds in one of the barns, The company called state veterinary officials to swab the birds' saliva for a test.
The test was positive, Mr. Dean said, and all one million birds at the farm were killed. Workers cleared out the dead birds and disinfected every inch of the facilities. Barns were heated to more than 100 degrees for several days to help eliminate the virus.
After the 2015 outbreak, it took Versova a year to restock poultry farms. This time, the Iowa facility reopened in February after the October outbreak, Mr. Dean said.
"We had people that had experience," he said. "We had all of our materials ready to go, all the cleaning equipment, the pressure washers, tape and plastic and sheeting."
The egg industry as a whole also is recovering from bird-flu outbreaks faster than it did eight years ago--roughly three to six months for most farms, compared with six to nine months previously, according the American Egg Board, an industry group.
Mr. Hickman of Hickman's Egg Ranch said his largest facility houses about 4 million cage-free chickens, which are too many chickens in one locale. "We would never do that again,” he said.
New facilities will be smaller, housing about one million birds each, he said, and spaced farther apart to help thwart the threat of continued outbreaks.
In December, workers at one of Hickman's farms in Colorado found dead birds in one of the barns. After test results came back positive for avian influenza, all 300,000 birds at the farm were asphyxiated using carbon dioxide gas.
Mr. Hickman said he suspected that a worker inadvertently spread the virus, possibly on their boots or clothing. To stress vigilance against transmission, the company requires people entering its corporate offices in Arizona to walk through a dry chlorine foot bed to disinfect their shoes, he said.
'It's everywhere'
The previous large-scale outbreak in the U.S. lasted from December 2014 to June 2015 and killed more than 50 million chickens and turkeys. Government officials attributed the high toll to the virus spreading from farm to farm.
In this outbreak, wild birds carrying the virus are responsible for 84% of cases, said Rosemary Sifford, the USDA's chief veterinary officer.
Puddle ducks, which include mallards and pintails, carried the virus to wild-bird breeding grounds, helping spread the bird flu around the country, said John Clifford, a former U.S. chief veterinary officer who oversaw the USDA response to the 2015 outbreak.
"It's everywhere," Dr. Clifford said.
In its latest securities filing. Cal-Maine, the largest U.S. egg producer, said in December that it hasn't had a single bird-flu case and that it was working to mitigate the risk of outbreaks. The company declined to comment.
Merck & Co. and other drugmakers have avian flu vaccines, but they might not be worth the cost and effort to use, said egg-company executives and industry experts. Farmworkers would have to give shots, and likely more than one, to millions of bens that generally produce eggs for no more than a year.
Vaccine use could also disrupt trade. Other countries would have to approve products made from vaccinated poultry, the USDA said. The U.S. is the world's second-largest exporter of poultry meat.
"It's kind of easy to say, Well, we'll vaccinate, and it'll solve the problem," Mr. Dean said. "But the truth is, it's far, far more complicated."
|
发表于 2-25-2023 13:39:36
收藏
分享
支持
反对
楼主