Egg production halts in Texas, Michigan amid bird flu outbreak
THE LEADING U.S. fresh egg producer announced on Tuesday a temporary production halt at a Texas plant due to bird flu found in chickens. Officials also reported the virus’s detection at a Michigan poultry facility.
Ridgeland, Mississippi-based Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. said in a statement that approximately 1.6 million laying hens and 337,000 pullets, about 3.6% of its total flock, were destroyed after the infection, avian influenza, was found at a facility in Parmer County, Texas.
The plant is in the Texas Panhandle, on the Texas-New Mexico border, about 85 miles (137 kilometers) southwest of Amarillo and about 370 miles northwest of Dallas. Cal-Maine said it sells most of its eggs in the Southwestern, Southeastern, Midwestern and mid-Atlantic regions of the U.S.
“The Company continues to work closely with federal, state, and local government officials and focused industry groups to mitigate the risk of future outbreaks and effectively manage the response,” the statement said. “Cal-Maine Foods is working to secure production from other facilities to minimize disruption to its customers,” the statement said.
The company said there is no known bird flu risk associated with eggs currently in the market, and no eggs have been recalled.
Eggs that are properly handled and cooked are safe to eat, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The announcement by Cal-Maine comes a day after state health officials said a person had been diagnosed with bird flu after being in contact with cows presumed to be infected and that the risk to the public remains low. The human case in Texas marks the first known instance globally of a person catching this version of bird flu from a mammal, federal health officials said.
Michigan State University’s Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory has detected bird flu in a commercial poultry facility in Ionia County, according to Michigan’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.
The county is about 100 miles northwest of Detroit.
The department said it received confirmation of the disease Monday from the lab and that it is the fourth time since 2022 that the disease was detected at a commercial facility in Michigan.
Department spokesperson Jennifer Holton said Tuesday that state law prohibits the department from disclosing the type of poultry at the facility. The facility has been placed under quarantine and the department does not anticipate any disruptions to supply chains across the state, Holton said.
Dairy cows in Texas and Kansas were reported to be infected with bird flu last week – and federal agriculture officials later confirmed infections in a Michigan dairy herd that had recently received cows from Texas. A dairy herd in Idaho has been added to the list after federal agriculture officials confirmed the detection of bird flu in them, according to a Tuesday press release from the USDA.