May 23, 2006

Power outage kills 60,000 chickens

About 60,000 chickens died after a 2-hour power outage Friday (May 19) night at a university research centre in Texas.

The deaths resulted in a loss of about US$90,000 for Pilgrim's Pride and US$30,000 to the Stephen F Austin State University (SFA) Broiler Research Centre.

Joey Bray, broiler farm manager said the deaths were caused by a total failure of standard back-up systems that should have started the generator and alerted management.

This was a case of technology failure resulting in economic loss, a press release from the centre said. 

The dead chickens would be buried on the university farm in accordance to procedures set by the Natural Resource Conservation Service and the state Soil and Water Conservation board, a press release said.

The press release further added that problems of this nature occur in modern poultry houses, where environmental controls and back-up systems are depended upon to monitor conditions. However, these are problems that only crop up in rare occasions, the statement said.

If there is one lesson learnt from this incident, it is that technology and environmental controllers can never replace constant physical presence and visual monitoring, Bray said.