Dive Brief:
- Lake Mills, WI-based Daybreak Foods Inc. says it will become productive again after recovering from the bird flu H5N2 contamination.
- Daybreak must first euthanize all 800,000 of its chickens.
- This report brings the total for birds affected by H5N2 in Wisconsin to 1.2 million on six commercial farms in four counties.
Dive Insight:
Last week, an Iowa chicken farm also reported a bird flu contamination, only that time the virus led to the euthanization of 5.3 million chickens. The situation has been so dire in Minnesota that the governor declared a state of emergency last week. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is currently working on a vaccine to address the rapid expansion of the disease.
William Rehm, president of Daybreak, said of the bird flu aftermath, "We'll follow the proper protocol to (euthanize the hens) and we'll be very humane. It's unfortunate and we feel bad for the animals and we feel for our team members at that location that they have to work through this process with us. It's not a good deal for anybody."