Bird flu’s economic impact starting to be felt

DES MOINES - Stay calm and cook your eggs.

That's the advice from a trio on the front lines of the battle to contain and defeat avian flu in Iowa poultry flocks.

The 6-week-old avian flu outbreak that has claimed 45 percent of the laying hens in Iowa, the nation's No. 1 egg producer, will have an impact on the state's economy, egg and poultry producers and consumers' pocketbooks, but doesn't pose a health threat to Iowans, according to Bill Northey, Iowa secretary of agriculture; Hongwei Xin, who directs Iowa State University's Egg Industry Center; and Randy Olson, director of the Iowa Poultry Association.

'If you prepare the eggs properly, hit that certain temperature, say 165 degrees, then that should kill the virus,” Xin said during recording Friday of Iowa Public Television's 'Iowa Press.”

'Properly prepare the product, whether it is turkey meat or eggs, then you should be OK to eat.”

As of Friday afternoon, there have been 64 cases of bird flu reported in Iowa, according to the Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship. The latest case is a turkey farm in Pocahontas County, affecting 21,000 birds.

Four-fifths of the 25,546,026 affected birds - including more than 800 backyard chickens and ducks - are layers, the department said.

It's too soon to know the complete economic impact, Olson said, but he warned it will be felt not only by producers, but their employees - many who already have been laid off while poultry facilities are being sterilized. It could be as long as 24 months before some poultry facilities are repopulated, he said.

'That takes an incredible toll on the family farm that has owned and cared for these birds, it takes a toll on the employees that have been working on these farms and also the communities in which these farms operate,” said Olson, who became the association's director just 100 days ago.

The economic impact doesn't stop there, Northey added. As birds, especially turkeys, from flocks that have tested positive for the flu are destroyed, processing facilities may be closed or reduce hours.

'We've seen in that in Minnesota,” he said. 'And certainly many of our eggs as well go through processing plants, sometimes on the farm, sometimes at stand-alone facilities, and we're starting to see some shortened hours in that as well.”

Consumers soon may be paying more for poultry, eggs and products that include eggs, Xin said. In the past few weeks, the price of eggs in the shell have increased 85 percent and liquid egg prices have skyrocketed 143 percent, he said.

'Admittedly there is the inherent fluctuations within the egg industry,” Xin said. 'So under normal circumstances, you still have fluctuations. But this sort of magnitude it is, we think is definitely an impact of the avian influenza outbreak.”

'Iowa Press” can be seen at 8:30 a.m. today on IPTV World, at noon Sunday on IPTV and online at www.iptv.org.

Iowa poultry production

' In March 2015, Iowa had 59.5 million egg layer chickens (16 percent of national stocks) in 3,821 laying facilities

' A typical layer hen weighs between 3 and 4 pounds, with an average weight of 3.6 to 3.7 pounds.

' The laying period begins at 18 to 20 weeks old and is productive for approximately two years

' The accepted industry value is $1.50 per productive laying hen

' 16.5 billion eggs produced annually (17 percent of national production)

' In March, Iowa layers produced 1.41 billion eggs - or 0.77 eggs per hen per day

' Raise over 11 million turkeys (ninth in U.S. turkey production) in about 200 farm sites