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| Fri, Nov. 21, 2008 |  |
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Regulators testing backyard flocks for mild bird flu virus Wednesday, Jun 11, 2008 Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - The state Livestock and Poultry Commission anticipates weeks more testing for avian influenza on chickens in a portion of Northwest Arkansas following a positive test for the virus last week, the agency's director said Tuesday. Private flocks are being targeted for testing after a series of tests last week of 65-week-old breeder hens under contract by Tyson Foods Inc. on a West Fork farm in southern Washington County turned up at least one positive result for the H7N3 virus. No one was endangered from the low pathogen version - different from the deadly bird flu strain H5N1 that has killed humans in Asia, Europe and Africa - but 15,000 hens were slaughtered and buried over the weekend according to protocol, state Livestock and Poultry Director Jon Fitch said Tuesday. Tests on private flocks were scheduled to begin today. "It'll take us about three weeks to do this. We're going to have to find all of the backyard flocks and we'll test them, then we'll go back in about three weeks and test them again," Fitch said. "Although I don't anticipate anything showing up, that's part of the protocol." Samples will be taken within the same 6.2-mile radius of the affected flock as tests on commercial flocks last week, he said. The exposed flock was routinely tested prior to leaving the farm for processing last weekend as required by federal and state protocol. Old breeder hens grown in the region are typically slaughtered in Jay, Okla. and processed into soup meat, but the flock never left the farm, Fitch said. "This is how it's supposed to work," he said. "No chickens are processed before they are tested." The Tyson Foods breeder flock tested positive for the H7N3 antibodies found in the blood stream, but tested negative for actually having avian flu, Fitch said. Tyson Foods said that local testing and further testing at the USDA lab in Ames, Iowa, found no indication the birds had the virus, and the breeder hens displayed no signs of illness prior to testing. |
