|
Tyson Foods, the world’s largest chicken producer, has found a strain of bird flu in breeder hens at an Arkansas facility. Jon Fitch, director of the state's Livestock and Poultry Commission, said that routine pre-slaughter tests conducted on May 30th found the exposure.
Further testing has shown that none of the birds had the H5N1 strain, though the plant culled and buried 15,000 birds as a precaution. The hens were found to have H7N3, a subtype of H5N1, the “Bird Flu” virus. |
State officials and representatives from Tyson foods claim that the strain is not harmful to humans; however there was a case in 2004 at a poultry plant in British Columbia where two workers had fallen ill from the same strain.
"There has not been a single case of the H5N1 virus found in the Americas and even if by some chance a migratory bird brought the virus to America we would still be no closer to a pandemic than if it never hit our shores. The H5N1 virus would have to mutate into a communicable strain before a pandemic situation could occur," said John Lea, vice president and avian flu task force leader for Tyson Foods.
Tyson hasn’t given any possible source or cause of the infections. The hens that were tested were not sick or showing signs of illness, and there were no recalls of chicken coming from this plant.
Since news of the infection broke, Japan stopped importing chicken from Arkansas, and a 90 day wait period has been placed on Chickens Shipping to Russia from this plant.
As for precautions, Tyson foods posted this on their website: “Tyson Foods and other U.S. chicken producers take great care to prevent chickens from being exposed to diseases. Unlike birds in Asia, which are primarily raised outdoors, commercial chickens in the U.S. are kept indoors, away from wild birds and other means of spreading diseases.” |
|
