Supervisors meet with county’s two largest egg producers on bird flu

What looked to be just a routine weekly meeting, with a fairly brief agenda, turned into an important meeting with the two largest egg producers in Wright County this past Monday with the Board of Supervisors. In attendance was both Rick Roedl of Daybreak Foods, Inc. and Sam Utecht of Centrum Valley Farms. They are the general managers of their respective operations, with Roedl originally making the request to appear. The item was not originally on the agenda, but the Board felt it important enough to bump some things back to make room for them. Several other county offices were also represented for the discussion.

The issue was the recent discovered outbreak of the highly contagious avian influenza virus, which was first confirmed in Buena Vista county but now has been discovered in four more possible locations in three other northwest Iowa counties. “We think we know where it comes from, but we’re not real sure,” said Roedl. According to him, it’s believed that mallard ducks are the worst carriers of the infection even though they never show any symptoms of it. While it currently poses no danger to humans, and is not even found in the eggs or meat from the chickens or turkey’s, the poultry are much more susceptible to getting the virus.

Read the full article in the April 30 edition of the WCM.