Highly lethal bird flu outbreaks happened in Kentucky and Virginia, and it could impact Tyson Foods' commercial products.
What’s happened: Federal agriculture officials said Monday that poultry operations in Kentucky and Virginia recently suffered avian flu outbreaks.
- One of the most recent ones is at a Tyson Foods commercial broiler in Fulton County, Kentucky, according to The Washington Post.
- This location had 240,000 chickens.
Yes, but: The infected birds will be culled. They will not enter the food system, state officials said, according to Reuters.
Security measures: Tyson has improved its biosecurity measures for other farms in the region, Gary Mickelson, a company spokesman, told The Washington Post.
- The company said it tests all flocks for bird flu before the birds leave their farms.
- The recent outbreak won’t impact Tyson’s chicken population.
Flashback: U.S. Department of Agriculture reported a new outbreak of the bird flu in an Indiana turkey flock earlier this month.
- Before that discovery, a lab analysis from the Department of Agriculture found that the strain of bird flu — the H5N1 avian influenza — had been found in a South Carolina duck, specifically, as I wrote for the Deseret News.