March 23, 2009

More than 1.4 million chickens have been killed in Robertson County, in Texas, this week after officials detected a rare respiratory infection in some of the birds.

Mississippi-based Sanderson Farms chief operating officer Lampkin Butts said on Thursday (Mar 19) that chickens with infectious laryngotracheitis, or ILT, had been found in farms near Texas 6 and Texas 14 more than a week ago.

Texas Animal Health Commission executive director Bob Hillman said that to stop the movement of disease, affected and exposed birds are being slaughtered.

Butts and Robertson County Judge Jan Roe said the financial impact on the chicken farmers and people with backyard flocks whose birds are wiped out could be significant.

Butts said that about a million of those killed would be processed for food and that meat from another 400,000 euthanized birds would not be distributed.

He also assured that these birds would be processed under USDA inspection.

ILT, a respiratory disease related to the herpes virus, spreads easily and can cause death in poultry, according to Sanjay Reddy, an associate professor who studies disease and virology with Texas A&M University's Department of Poultry Science.

Butts also said company veterinarians detected the virus March 9 on farms that raise the birds exclusively for Sanderson Farms, adding that the company and its growers would take a significant hit from the outbreak.

Officials identified a two-mile "red zone" around the infected area that includes at least one commercial farm and several backyard flocks and notified the Texas Animal Health Commission, as required by law.

Butts said that all the birds from 56 broiler houses would be dead by Saturday (Mar 21) and that officials had isolated the area to keep the virus from spreading.