Up to 5.3 million hens at an Iowa farm must be destroyed after the highly infectious and deadly bird flu virus was confirmed, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Monday.

The farm in northwest Iowa's Osceola County has nearly 10 percent of the state's egg-laying hens. Iowa is home to roughly 59 million hens that lay nearly one in every five eggs consumed in the country.

Egg industry marketing experts say it's too early to predict the impact on prices, but say it's unlikely to immediately cause a spike or a shortage, because number of chickens that are to be euthanized is a little more than 1 percent of the nation's egg layers.

"Don't panic. Let's wait and see," said poultry industry consultant Simon Shane, who also teaches poultry science and veterinary medicine at North Carolina State University. He added that if 20 million to 30 million hens are infected, consumers could start seeing prices rise.

Several Midwestern states have been affected by the outbreaks, costing turkey and chicken producers nearly 7.8 million birds since March. The virus was first detected in Minnesota, the country's top turkey-producing state, in early March and the H5N2 virus has since shown up on commercial farms in Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin. On Monday, the virus was confirmed in another turkey farm in Minnesota and a backyard flock of mixed birds in Wisconsin.

The Osceola County farm provides shell eggs and liquid egg products to the market.

"It may not have a direct effect on shell egg pricing but any time you take production out of a marketplace there's likely to be some consequence," Iowa Poultry Association Executive Director Randy Olson said. "I anticipate the market and production will recover, but right now we're reminding people that this is not a food safety issue and it's not a human health issue."

Olson said he's confident authorities have identified the extent of the outbreak and have a plan to control it.

It's the first chicken farm in Iowa to be affected by the virus, which was confirmed at a turkey farm in the state last week.

The chickens on the large operation reside in more than 20 houses, said Dustin Vande Hoef, a spokesman for Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey.

"It's a huge challenge for this producer and highlights the importance of biosecurity and other producers trying to take steps to limit the spread of this disease," he said.

The Center for Disease Control and the Iowa Department of Public Health considers the risk to people from these infections in wild birds, backyard flocks and commercial poultry, to be low. No human infections with the virus have ever been detected.

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Death by bird flu is not pretty. A chicken might start sneezing and coughing, struggling to breathe. Or its stubby legs might wobble as the bird struggles to move, eventually falling down or losing consciousness. In 48 hours, it will be dead, because there is no cure for this virus, which is hitting farms across the U.S. Midwest in what has been described as the worst bird flu outbreak in recent memory.

This week, farmers in Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota announced they would have to kill a total of more than 5 million chickens, joining other poultry producers who have been forced to kill millions of sick turkeys since the virus began spreading in March. Once birds are infected, euthanasia is the best way for farmers to effectively deal with the sick poultry, especially as they struggle to effectively prevent the virus -- transmitted through bird droppings -- from spreading in other ways, experts say.

“Depopulation is the best control measure,” Dr. Kyoungjin Yoon, an avian influenza expert at Iowa State University, said. The virus’ spread has been attributed to wild birds, like ducks and geese, dropping excrement as they fly on migratory pathways, but “we can do only so much to control wild birds,” he pointed out.

Biosecurity Failure

The current outbreak, which dates to December, has infected more than 7.3 million turkeys and chickens so far. Vaccines, which generally are not used, are not entirely effective in preventing the virus from spreading, while biosecurity -- sanitation protocols that are the first line of defense to prevent the virus from entering farms -- has been mysteriously failing.

“The puzzling thing about this virus is that the biosecurity that we thought was good doesn’t seem to be stopping it,” Jim Roth, director of the Center for Food Security and Public Health at Iowa State, said. “People are scrambling to figure out what more is needed.”

Dr. Sherrill Davison, director of the poultry lab at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine, described the biosecurity as a careful, step-by-step process. When she visits farms, she makes sure her truck is clean, both inside and out. “I shower, make sure all my clothes are washed,” she said. Once she’s at the farm, she dons boots, coveralls and a hat and dips her boot-covered feet into a foot bath before entering any poultry house.

Roth said he was surprised by how many poultry houses have been hit by the virus, given the methodical care taken to prevent pathogens from entering these facilities. “If it’s being spread by dust or flying insects, that’s pretty hard to stop. But we don’t know.”

Although other countries do, the United States does not vaccinate poultry flocks against the virus. Vaccinating birds adds to production costs, and it also doesn’t guarantee against infection and outbreaks, experts point out.

“Vaccination itself cannot prevent infection,” Yoon said. A vaccinated bird might show no signs of being sick, but it can still pass the virus to other birds. “We do need more research to develop better vaccines,” he said. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is working on a vaccine, but there’s no timeline for when it might be ready.

Lesson Learned

The solution of humanely euthanizing birds during such an outbreak is a lesson learned from the last major bird flu outbreak, which hit the U.S. Northeast in 1983 and 1984 and killed roughly 17 million birds, Davison, the UPenn lab director, said. She said the current outbreak, though, was worse.

Still unknown is what effect the outbreak will have on the poultry market. Yet experts suggest its effects will become apparent soon, if they haven't already.

“Economically, producers are going to be hit hard,” Yoon said. Though the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said the virus poses a low risk to humans, consumers nevertheless tend to grow wary and buy fewer poultry products, he said. As a result, farms with healthy flocks still can be hurt by the outbreak.

Producers who have had to euthanize flocks are also directly hurt by the loss of their birds. “There’s an extremely devastating economic effect on the producers themselves,” Davison said. Farmers could lose income from nine months to one year if they lose flocks to the flu.

“At this stage, the economic impact is to the farmers who are losing birds,” Simon Shane, a poultry industry consultant and an adjunct professor of poultry science at North Carolina State University, said. Although the price of eggs and other poultry products could eventually be affected, he suggested that the number of birds that had been euthanized so far was not significant enough to drive up costs, especially when compared to the number of birds usually slaughtered for food. “We’re killing about 5 million turkeys every week,” he said, so “it’s not a very big hole.”

SEE ALSO: Bird flu confirmed at Iowa farm with 5.3 million chickens

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CHICAGO (Reuters) - Minnesota declared a state of emergency on Thursday over a fast-spreading strain of avian flu that has led to the extermination of more than 7.3 million birds in the country. It followed Wisconsin's action on Monday.

The highly pathogenic H5N2 strain of bird flu has been identified on 46 Minnesota farms in 16 counties and affected more than 2.6 million birds in the state.

State health officials said they were expediting prescriptions for the antiviral drug Tamiflu for farm workers and others who have been in direct contact with infected flocks.

No human infections have been reported in this outbreak.

"There's no reason for anybody in the state of Minnesota to be concerned about their own health," Governor Mark Dayton said at a press conference on Thursday after declaring the state of emergency.

Federal and local public health authorities have said the risk of human infection is low.

The state's action to provide antiviral drugs follows recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Minnesota's health department approached 140 farm workers and others who had been in direct contact with infected birds and advised 87 of them to take the Roche antiviral medication as a preventative measure, the department's spokesman Michael Schommer said. Seventy of them took the drug, he said.

Of the 62 people that state health officials have followed up with so far, none have been infected by the virus, Schommer said.

Virus speads quickly

The virus can kill nearly an entire infected flock within 48 hours.

Millions of turkeys and chickens are in quarantine waiting to be culled and large flocks have already been destroyed.

Officials have said they believe wild birds are spreading the virus but they do not know how it is entering barns.

Two bird flu strains have been discovered in the United States this year.

The H5N2 strain is in Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Washington and Wisconsin. It has also been identified on farms in Ontario, Canada.

The H5N8 strain has been identified in California and also in Idaho, U.S. Department of Agriculture data showed.

Iowa, the top U.S. egg-producing state, said on Monday that a lethal strain of bird flu had been found in hens at an egg-laying facility near the city of Harris run by Sunrise Farms, an affiliate of Sonstegard Foods Company. The company said the facility houses 3.8 million hens.

"We went to great lengths to prevent our birds from contracting AI (avian influenza), but despite best efforts we now confirm many of our birds are testing positive," Sonstegard said.

Hormel Foods Corp, based in Minnesota, said this week that the virulent strain of avian influenza may drag its fiscal 2015 earnings toward the lower end of forecasts.

The virus has been identified at a facility west of Minneapolis that is owned by a subsidiary of Hormel. Minnesota is the largest turkey-producing state in the country.

Actions being taken

Minnesota's Dayton said he had authorized the National Guard to be called up for duty if needed.

In Wisconsin on Monday, Governor Scott Walker declared a state of emergency after three poultry flocks became infected in the past week, his office said. A state spokeswoman said guardsmen would disinfect trucks exiting infected facilities.

In Minnesota, researchers are investigating the virus' spread, testing animal feed and conducting experiments to see if the virus is being carried onto farms by windborne dirt, dust or feathers, state officials said on Thursday.

The CDC said on Wednesday that H5N2 is genetically different from the H5N1 bird flu virus that has spread from birds to humans in the past.

On Tuesday, Mexico, the biggest buyer of U.S. chicken, halted imports of live birds and eggs from Iowa.

(Reporting By P.J. Huffstutter. Additional reporting by Julie Steenhuysen.; Editing by Bernard Orr, Toni Reinhold)

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CHICAGO (Reuters) - Tyson Foods Inc, the largest U.S. poultry producer, plans to eliminate the use of human antibiotics in its chicken flocks by September 2017 - one of the most aggressive timelines yet set by an American poultry company.

The Arkansas-based chicken and meat giant also said it is working on ways to curtail such on-farm drug practices at its other protein businesses, which include pork and beef.

The move marks the latest push by the livestock and food industries to reduce the use of antibiotics crucial to human health in meat production.

Authorities are concerned that the routine feeding of antibiotics to animals could spur the creation of antibiotic resistant superbugs in humans, creating a health hazard.

Tyson's move, announced on Tuesday morning, aims to help the company meet a deadline recently outlined by McDonald's Corp. to have its U.S. restaurants gradually stop buying chicken raised with human antibiotics over the next two years.

But the company, a key chicken supplier to McDonald's, said in a statement to Reuters that its plans are part of an ongoing effort and "go beyond one customer."

Tyson said it is also forming working groups with independent farmers, company suppliers, veterinarians and others to talk about how to develop ideas to cut the use of antibiotics vital to fighting human infections in its U.S. beef, pork and turkey supply chains.

The working groups will begin meeting this summer.

While veterinary use of antibiotics is legal, controversy has grown over the routine feeding of antibiotics that are important to humans to otherwise healthy chicken, cattle and pigs in a bid to stave off disease and help the animals grow more quickly.

Tyson said it has already stopped using all antibiotics in its 35 broiler hatcheries and has cut human antibiotics used to treat its broiler chickens by more than 80 percent since 2011. The company said it requires a veterinary prescription when antibiotics are used on its broiler farms.

"Given the progress we've already made reducing antibiotics in our broilers, we believe it's realistic to shoot for zero by the end of our 2016 fiscal year," Donnie Smith, president and chief executive of Tyson Foods, said in a statement. 

INDUSTRY SHIFTS

Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal reported that Pilgrim's Pride Corp., the nation's second-largest U.S. poultry processor, would cut all antibiotics from a quarter of its chicken production by 2019.

Rival poultry processor Perdue Farms Inc. told Reuters more than 95 percent of the chickens it produces are raised without antibiotics approved for human use, and more than half are raised with no antibiotics of any kind.

Sandwich chain Chick-fil-A in 2014 gave its producers five years to meet its commitment to go antibiotic-free for chicken. Perdue is a major supplier to Chick-fil-A.

Tyson has been working with livestock drug companies and others to test a variety of alternatives to antibiotics to protect birds, ranging from probiotics to essential oils derived from plant extracts, the company told Reuters.

However, alternatives to human antibiotics are also needed for treating ill birds, the company said. It is providing funds to help accelerate research into disease prevention and antibiotic alternatives to be used on farms.

Tyson declined to say how much the company will spend to buch such funding of livestock pharmaceuticals and alternatives.

Some poultry industry experts say the options for non-human drugs to treat certain diseases in broiler chickens can be limited, and say animal pharmaceutical firms have been slow to invest for the development of new chicken-only antibiotics.

Tyson said it plans to meet its 2017 antibiotic-withdrawal timeline, but there could be some exceptions.

"We won't jeopardize animal well-being just to get there," Smith said. "We'll use the best available treatments to keep our chickens healthy, under veterinary supervision."

(Reporting By P.J. Huffstutter in Chicago. Editing by Jo Winterbottom and Richard Pullin)

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Apparently, the 24-hour news cycle doesn't apply to sick chickens.

A highly virulent strain of the avian flu is sweeping across the American Midwest and devastating chicken and turkey farmers, but it hasn't garnered media coverage proportional to its importance and potential consequences. (There is virtually no threat to human health.)

The situation is quickly going from bad to worse for America's $45 billion poultry industry, which exports $3 billion in goods every year. That will take a major hit in 2015 after China, South Korea, and Mexico banned U.S. produce (to protect their own poultry industries).

Falling exports could hurt farmers, but it could also help to offset domestic price increases from less supply. Although, with tens of millions of bird deaths and no end in sight to the pandemic, domestic food prices could be the largest casualty in the end. Knowing that, let's consider the potential magnitude of the consequences for three types of companies: poultry owners such as Tyson Foods, poultry industry customers such as McDonald's, and byproduct customers such as Darling Ingredients.

Poultry apocalypse?
How bad could it really be, you ask?

• Minnesota, the nation's top turkey producer, and Iowa, the nation's top egg producer, have each declared a state of emergency.
• A total of 14 states and two Canadian provinces have reported instances of the virus.
• More than 24 million chickens and turkeys have been killed in an attempt to slow its spread, including 3.8 million hens on one Iowan farm, with the total number of affected birds expected to swell well beyond that.
• Over 25% of all egg-laying hens in Iowa have contracted the virus or are already slated to be killed, representing roughly 6% of all egg-laying hens in the United States.
• The federal government had to release an additional $330 million in emergency funds to help deal with the crisis -- a 290% increase over budgeted funds.

The avian flu in question, H5N2, is the rare and deadly offspring of the infamous H5N1 avian flu that has found a permanent home in Asia. (Avian influenza strains are spread globally by migratory birds.) It was last reported in the United States in 1983 and, until this outbreak, was the nation's worst in terms of poultry deaths. In other words, it's rough out there.

The outbreak could be contained if proper measures are followed, but with infections being reported from new farms every day, officials aren't holding their breath for a swift end to the poultry apocalypse. Investors may want to dig in, too.

Will your investments be affected?

Investors have already experienced some setbacks. Leading turkey producer Hormel Foods has lowered 2015 earnings expectations after "experiencing significant challenges" in its turkey supply chain.

Meanwhile, similarly sized Tyson Foods has been able to escape most of the woes associated with the outbreak so far, beating Wall Street expectations for earnings during the first quarter. But if you were wondering whether investors are on edge, then simply consider the one-day drop of 5% in early March on reports of a suspected bird flu infection in Arkansas, where most of the company's production resides. Imagine what a confirmed case would do.

Although one of the company's turkey farms has been affected, Tyson Foods CEO Donnie Smith was quick to note that the outbreak has mostly affected turkeys and egg-laying hens further north, not chicken operations in the south. That's important considering chicken operations accounted for 30%, or $11.3 billion, of its revenue in 2014.

The potential for devastation works both ways, especially considering that Tyson Foods' 57 production facilities account for 22% of total American chicken production and boast weekly production of 41 million chickens.

What is potentially bad news for chickens owned by Tyson Foods is also potentially bad news for McDonald's, which unsurprisingly purchases a portion of its chicken requirements from the nation's top producer. At the moment, there's some indication that domestic demand for chicken products remains strong, but the latest data available ends with February -- before the avian flu really took off. It may be unlikely, but even increased public awareness about the avian flu could temporarily curtail consumer appetites for chicken.

Consequences from the deadly avian flu aren't solely for producers at the beginning of the value chain, either. Darling Ingredients collects and transforms animal by-products into everything ranging from specialty ingredients to renewable diesel fuel. If the current crisis pushes domestic chicken prices higher, then the prices paid for chicken byproducts (greases and fats) would increase as well, perhaps negatively affecting the company.

In SEC filings Darling Ingredients actually mentions six variations of avian flu as a potential risk to its business operations. The rare and deadly H5N2 currently wreaking havoc across the Midwest isn't one of them.

What does it mean for investors?

Major news networks may not be giving it the proper amount of attention, but the current avian flu outbreak is one of historic proportions. It's already beginning to affect companies depending on chickens, chicken eggs, and turkeys; although most have been spared so far. Nonetheless, given the severity and the lack of vision into a potential containment date, this is a situation investors will want to watch very carefully. 

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Food distributor Sysco said on Friday that a record U.S. outbreak of avian flu would limit its supply of eggs and chickens that lay them for nine to 18 months, based on information provided to the company by its suppliers.

Sysco is the biggest U.S. food distributor, whose clients include restaurants, hotels and hospitals.

The company is discussing options with its customers, including creating alternative menu items during the period, a Sysco spokesman said in an email.

It is too soon to tell whether the supply squeeze will have a material impact on financial results, spokesman Charley Wilson said. Eggs represent a small portion of the company's dairy products segment, which accounted for 11 percent of revenue in 2014.

The U.S. poultry and egg industry is grappling with the country's biggest outbreak on record of avian influenza, which has proven highly infectious and deadly for poultry. Governors in Nebraska, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa have declared a state of emergency, and the outbreak has shown few signs of waning.

Earlier this week, Cargill said it has implemented increased biosecurity measures at its facilities receiving liquid egg tankers and shell eggs from impacted states and that it is working with egg suppliers to ensure they are employing measures to prevent spread of the flu.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, Post Holdings Inc, calling the flu a "force majeure event," said it now estimates that 25 percent of its egg supply has been affected. Sysco is a major customer for Post's Michael Foods business, which sells egg products, according to filings.

Stifel Nicolaus analyst Christopher Growe expects Post's previous estimate of a $20 million financial impact in 2015 to at least double, according to a research note.

Growe said that Post's contracts require the company to go to the open market and to third parties to replace the lost supply at high prices. "We believe that by declaring force majeure, the company will be able to either pass higher prices onto customers or be relieved from the mandatory supply requirements," he wrote.

(Editing by Michele Gershberg, Matthew Lewis and Alan Crosby)

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YONG PENG, Malaysia (Reuters) - In barns filled with classical music and lighting that changes to match the hues outside, rows of chickens are fed a diet rich in probiotics, a regimen designed to remove the need for the drugs and chemicals that have tainted the global food chain.

As food giants face growing pressure to offer healthier produce, Southeast Asian poultry firm Kee Song Group says its use of "good" bacteria in feed and water means it can meet one the industry's biggest challenges: how to mass produce drug and hormone-free poultry at a reasonable price.

A series of scandals in the last few years from melamine-tainted milk powder in China, horse meat supplied as beef in Europe and growth drugs causing lameness in U.S. cattle has triggered a consumer backlash over food standards and safety.

Recently, Tyson Foods Inc pledged to eliminate the use of human antibiotics in chicken by 2017, one of the most aggressive timetables yet by a U.S. poultry firm.

The top American poultry producer, which supplies fast-food chains such as McDonald's Corp , is among a number of groups globally incorporating probiotics into feed.

"For meat producers, reputation risks are becoming stronger driving companies to focus on safe ingredients specially in Europe and the United States," said Pawan Kumar, director for food and agricultural research at Rabobank in Singapore.

Kee Song says the cost to produce drug-free chickens using probiotics is now only 10-12 percent more than using antibiotic-fed poultry. It sells these birds at a 30 percent premium in stores, far less than expensive free-range organic chicken.

The firm annually produces around 4 million drug-free birds at its Malaysian farms in Yong Peng, 125 km north-west of Singapore, and aims to expand sales to China and the West.

"Probiotics, either alone or in combination with essential oils and organic acids, are at the forefront of international approaches to replace antibiotics," said Wayne Bryden, Professor of Animal Science at the University of Queensland.

Probiotics populate the gut with healthy bacteria in a bid to curb bad bacteria, while oils and organic acids are also often included in feed to aid digestion.

A team at the Australian university, partly funded by feed maker Ridley AgriProducts, have found in preliminary trials that using a probiotic can double the efficiency of use of protein from feed to boost weigh gain in livestock.

Superbugs

An estimated 80 percent of antibiotics used in the United States are administered to livestock with the use expected to surge by two thirds globally between 2010 and 2030.

Scientists are worried the practice could spur antibiotic-resistant superbugs.

McDonald's has also pledged to eliminate chickens fed on human antibiotics at its U.S. restaurants and is looking at similar steps in Asia.

"In Asia Pacific, we will be working with our supply partners and relevant experts to implement this enhanced measure," a company spokesperson said via email.

While demand for healthier products is increasing fast in the West, some experts say that in parts of Asia customers will not be prepared to pay more for drug-free poultry, though China could be a promising market after high-profile food scares.

Mozart and blue lighting

In Kee Song's Malaysian poultry farm, 20,000 chickens rest on saw dust in the dimly lit barns, with feed and water laced with probiotics being automatically pumped into feeding pans.

As well as playing Mozart, lighting is used in a bid to keep the birds tranquil with neon blue lighting turned on when the birds are taken for slaughter.

"Look at the environment, chickens stay healthy and happy here," the firm's Chairman Ong Kee Song told Reuters.

"Even the droppings don't smell," added Ong, who has been a vegetarian for 17 years after a stay at a Buddhist temple.

Traditional chicken farms are notorious for producing noxious fumes as well as loud noise from squawking birds.

Growth hormones mixed with feed can also produce oversized breasts and wings that underdeveloped legs struggle to support for more than a few steps.

Chia Tet Fatt, a molecular geneticist who previously was a professor at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University teamed up with Kee Song to produce the probiotic used, lactobacillus, and confirmed chickens were not fed any drugs or antibiotics.

Tan Chee Kiang, vice president of Charoen Pokphand, the world's biggest animal feed miller, also said the feed it supplied to Kee Song was free of antibiotics.

By not using drugs, the poultry farms need to maintain stringent cleanliness measures to avoid the risk of infection and it takes three days more than conventionally produced chickens to attain a commercially viable weight of 1.8 to 2.0 kg.

As well as supplying supermarkets, Kee Song also sells to some restaurants in Singapore, including French restaurant Cocotte, where the chicken is used for a signature dish.

(Editing by Ed Davies)

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Pigs and chickens have much in common: they eat similar diets (chickens, like pigs, are omnivorous) and grow to slaughter weight quickly — in less than two months for chickens and less than six months for pigs.

Unlike cattle, which require many leisurely months on pasture, chickens and pigs can be stuffed with feed and turned into meat in short order.

Unsurprisingly, then, the agricultural methods developed for one also worked well for the other.

In the 1950s and 1960s, American farmers started raising hogs like chickens.

Feed, augered into the hog barns from nearby silos, was deposited in automatic feeders.

Heaters and fans controlled the temperature, eliminating the need to open and close windows or haul straw for bedding.

The most important innovation was low-tech: slatted floors.

Used first in Norway in 1951 and adopted in the United States a decade later, the floors had long, narrow gaps that allowed urine and manure to fall into gutters below, where it could be flushed out with water.

"The use of slotted floors has probably accelerated the trend toward confinement more than any other single development," an expert wrote in 1972.

Slatted floors started a cascade of other changes in pig husbandry. Straw bedding, formerly needed to absorb urine and provide warmth, could be eliminated in favor of bare floors. There was no need for a separate dunging area, so more pigs could be packed into pens where they slept, ate, and relieved themselves.

For each pig weighing 150 to 250 pounds, industry guidelines in the 1980s called for allotting eight square feet of pen space, a dramatic reduction for animals that had historically been given free range of the woods or, at least, a pasture or sty.

In such close quarters, pigs kept each other warm, requiring less artificial heat, and gained weight more quickly because they didn't burn calories exercising.

Crowded together, they shuffled around more, trampling manure through the slots and keeping the pen cleaner.

Slatted floors made the farmer's life easier, eliminating what one industry publication called the "tedious and disagreeable" task of scraping manure from stalls.

Once a solid that needed to be shoveled, manure became a liquid that could be sluiced away.

The "comfort and convenience" of the farmer, an industrial manual reported, "may well be the most important" reason to move hogs into confinement.

The comfort and convenience of the pigs was left unmentioned.

Excerpted from "Lesser Beasts: A Snout-to-Tail History of the Humble Pig" by Mark Essig. Available from Basic Books, a member of The Perseus Books Group. Copyright © 2015.

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Washington (AFP) - US farmers have been forced to kill almost 40 million chickens and other birds, causing egg prices to soar as a deadly version of the avian flu attacks the poultry industry.

An outbreak of a particularly infectious version of the bird flu, believed to come initially from wild ducks and geese, has spread into 15 US states and two Canadian provinces, requiring the mass slaughter of egg-laying chickens and turkeys in particular.

That has turned into an 80 percent surge in the wholesale price of eggs, and a more modest hike in turkey meat costs, which could last for the rest of the year even if the flu outbreak can be successfully contained, according to industry officials.

The midwest state of Iowa, the largest US egg producer, has seen some 25 million birds, mostly chickens for egg production, killed.

The state has declared a state of emergency against the disease, and after discovering avian flu on a 63rd farm, on Thursday banned any public exhibition of live birds, including at fairs, auctions, swap meets and other events. 

"The scale of this outbreak has been unprecedented, so we think it is important we take every possible step to limit the chance that this disease will spread any further," said Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey.

Wild birds seen as source

The disease first surfaced last year in the far northwest state of Washington, apparently transmitted by wild birds.

Since then it has appeared in farms in 15 states, including some of those with the largest poultry industries.

Scientists describe the disease, known as H5N2, as a highly pathogenic version of the avian flu. It is different from the H5N1 flu now found widely in farms in Asia that has proven able to jump from poultry to humans and killed hundreds of people after it first surfaced in 2004.

The US Centers for Disease Control says the risk of H5N2 jumping to humans is "low at this time," though it does not rule out the possibility.

Figures from the US Department of Agriculture show that more than 39 million birds had been infected by or exposed to the new strain of bird flu as of this week.

Canada too has also seen H5N2 outbreaks in flocks at farms in British Columbia and Ontario.

Dustin Vande Hoef, spokesman for the Iowa Department of Agriculture, said the pace of new infections has slowed and the state thinks the disease will soon be under control, helped by the arriving summer.

"We have had less infections the last couple of weeks... It's certainly on the downhill side," Vande Hoef told AFP.

"Warmer weather makes it harder for the disease to survive."

But he said the process of cleaning and sterilizing poultry facilities, inspecting them, and then stocking them with new chickens, means the tighter supply could last until next year.

"It will take time to put birds back in there," he said.

The US outbreak has added to a recent surge of infections by numerous strains of avian flu worldwide, which spurred the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) to issue a general warning earlier this week.

"To prevent the disease from spreading, it is vital to implement OIE-recommended subsecurity measures in farms, in commerce and in live bird markets, disease surveillance and early detection," the organization said.

"While the role of wild birds as reservoirs and vectors of the virus has been highlighted in these various epidemics, other factors of transmission, especially among poultry farms, could rise to prominence unless appropriate precautions are taken."

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BEIJING (AP) — Restaurant operator KFC said Monday it filed a lawsuit against three companies in China whose social media accounts spread false claims about its food, including that its chickens have eight legs.

The case filed by China's biggest restaurant operator comes as the government intensifies a campaign to clean up rumors on social media. Internet marketers have been convicted of trying to manipulate online sentiment on behalf of clients by posting false information about competitors or deleting critical posts.

In an announcement posted on its Chinese website, KFC said one of the best-known fake rumors was that chickens used by the company are genetically modified and have six wings and eight legs.

KFC is demanding 1.5 million yuan ($242,000) and an apology from each of three companies that operated accounts on the popular mobile phone app WeChat. It is also seeking an immediate stop to their infringements. Shanghai Xuhui District People's Court has accepted the case, according to a press officer who would only give her surname, Wu.

KFC's China CEO Qu Cuirong said in a statement that it was hard for companies to protect their brands against rumors because of the difficulties in collecting evidence. "But the stepped-up efforts by the government in recent years to purify the online environment, as well as some judicial interpretations, have offered us confidence and weapons," she said.

The companies being sued were named as Shanxi Weilukuang Technology Company Ltd., Taiyuan Zero Point Technology Company and Yingchenanzhi Success and Culture Communication Ltd. in Shenzhen city. Calls to numbers listed for the companies either rang unanswered or were not valid.

Authorities launched a renewed campaign two years ago to clean up what they called online rumors, negativity and unruliness. Critics say the campaign was largely aimed at suppressing criticism of the ruling Communist Party. Commentaries in state media have argued that a cleanup was needed.

KFC has more than 4,600 restaurants in China.

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KFC is suing three companies in China for allegedly spreading rumors that the fast-food chain uses mutated chickens with extra limbs.

KFC claims that the stories originated with the Chinese companies Ying Chen An Zhi Chenggong Culture Communications Ltd., Wei Lu Kuang Technology, and Ling Dian Technology, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The fried chicken chain is is seeking compensation of up to 1.5 million yuan, or $245,000, from each company.

Stories about the "mutant" chickens have been circulating for years.

One rumor that gained traction last year claimed the federal government forced KFC to shorten its name from Kentucky Fried Chicken when it stopped using "real chickens" and started using these tube-fed "genetically modified organisms."

The story, which cited a hoax University of New Hampshire study, was posted on the viral news site Daily Buzz Live, pumping new life into a rumor that had been circulating for more than a decade.

"There is absolutely no truth to this ridiculous urban legend, which has been debunked many times," KFC spokesman Rick Maynard told Business Insider last year. "KFC uses only top quality poultry from trusted companies like Tyson and Pilgrim’s Pride — the same brands customers know from their local supermarkets."

Rumors about the mutant chickens have been debunked by Snopes.com, which notes that the company's 1991 name change had to do with menu pages and a desire to eliminate the word "fried," and nothing to do with governmental regulations.

"These so-called 'chickens' are kept alive by tubes inserted into their bodies to pump blood and nutrients throughout their structure," according to false Daily Buzz Live story. "They have no beaks, no feathers and no feet. They grow with multiple legs and wings on one 'chicken.' Their bone structure is dramatically shrunk to get more meat out of them. This is great for KFC because it saves them money for their production costs."

The University of New Hampshire has also repeatedly debunked the claim that they authored a study on KFC's mutant chickens. 

"An active Internet hoax, of the urban legend type, falsely claims that KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) is using genetically engineered organisms instead of chickens," according to a statement posted on the university's website. "The hoax includes reference to an unspecified study of KFC done at the University of New Hampshire and there is no such research or study that was done here."

See also:  This is how Chicken McNuggets are made

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In a fascinating and in-depth Bloomberg piece, investigative reporter Christopher Leonard lays out the agricultural murder mystery of our time. Starting in February 2015, someone who had to have intimate knowledge of how factory chicken farming (including climate controls, fans, and alarm systems) works systematically murdered 320,000 chickens on several farms in South Carolina.

How did someone do this? More importantly, why would someone do this? Here’s a brief overview of the facts Leonard lays out:

HOW THE CHICKENS WERE KILLED

Factory farmed chickens are raised inside chicken houses that are owned by contract farmers. These houses require special climate control systems to maintain optimal temperatures for the birds. Adult chickens require cool air to circulate, dissipating heat and steam. Young chicks like those pictured above require extra warmth so they can grow into healthy adult chickens.Both types of chickens are kept separately because of their different requirements.

The person (or people) who systematically killed all these chickens clearly knew this. The first farm hit happened on February 17, 2015. Farmer Hoangson Nguyen received a call from an employee telling him to come to the farm immediately, and that something was terribly wrong. Nguyen arrived to find that the climate controls on one chicken house showed an internal temperature of 122°F. When he went inside, it was like a horrifying sauna, where chickens had pressed up against walls trying to get out as they were smothered by the climate control tampering.

It gets worse: Elsewhere, baby chicks all froze to death while still trying to huddle together for warmth. After all the chickens were killed, Pilgrim’s Pride lost about $1.7 million worth of birds. But the farmers lost an estimated $10,000 per chicken house—an unfathomable amount for people who are already living below the poverty line.

HOW POULTRY FARMING WORKS

A lot has been written about factory farming, and chicken welfare in general. What’s starting to get more attention is how this all affects the farmers themselves, who are basically in insane amounts of debt to banks. These farmers rely on their contracts with huge companies like Pilgrim’s Pride (which owned all the chickens killed in South Carolina) , Tyson, Perdue, and Sanderson Farms so that they can make payments on those debts. Leonard also explored this particular wrinkle of the American industrial meat system in-depth in his book, The Meat Racket.

Here’s an overview:

• Farmers own the land and facilities where the chickens are raised and fattened to become the nation’s favorite meat. However, farmers don’t own the chickens themselves.
• Instead, farmers are under contract to the poultry companies, such as Pilgrim’s Pride. The companies own all the chickens, as well as the feed they supply to farmers to fatten up the chickens. John Oliver likens it to “chicken daycare.”
• At the end of the process, the companies weigh the chickens in a “tournament system”  to see how much grain they’ve converted into delicious, fat, saleable meat.
• Then, the farmers who have the fattest birds using the least amount of grain get a bonus. Farmers with the lowest weight get their pay severely (and disproportionately) docked.
• In other words, it’s a zero-sum game: Farmers are effectively pitted against farmers, because one farmer’s bonus is coming out of his neighbor’s pocket. Nguyen told Leonard that if you go to a meeting of Pilgrim’s Pride farmers, none of them actually speaks to each other because tensions are so high.
• Even though it was clearly beyond Nguyen’s or any of the other farmers’ control, Pilgrim’s Pride included the birds killed as part of this mass chicken killing spree in those tournament numbers. That meant Nguyen came dead last in the tournament, and was found to actually owe the company $12,961.61.

THE INVESTIGATION

Sheriff Randy Garrett’s investigations led him to James Lowery, a farmer with whom Pilgrim’s Pride had not renewed its contract (Lowery was not “fired,” PP was quick to tell Garrett) after Lowery had neglected a Pilgrim’s Pride chicken flock so badly, the company determined that he was in violation of their animal welfare policies. Cell phone records showed that Lowery had been on-site at all the farms where the murders had happened, in the middle of the night when they were committed. The farms were all difficult to get to, and not easily accessible via main roads.

The Associated Press reports that in May, charges against Lowery were dropped after a judge said there wasn’t enough evidence to move forward with the case. However, Leonard reports that federal investigators may charge Lowery with tampering with the food supply—which is a felony that bears a sentence of 20 years per count.

For a full and detailed account, Leonard’s entire chilling piece is well worth reading.

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Korean-American chef David Chang, of Momofuku fame, is taking one small step into the world of fast food. The restaurant is called Fuku and the hero is this enormous fried chicken sandwich. 

The sandwich that will have hipsters lined up around the block sounds like a riff on Chick-fil-A. Sustainably sourced chicken thighs are marinated in habañero purée, dipped in buttermilk, coated in spices, deep-fried, and tucked into a potato roll with pickles and butter. 

The rolls are steamed (like the Taiwanese bao buns), and the butter is flavored with fermented chickpeas, New York magazine's Grub Street reports. Chang says the chicken recipe yields an intensely juicy, crispy piece of meat. 

Located in a tiny, standing-room space in New York's East Village — the original location of Chang's first restaurant, Noodle Bar — Fuku will start serving to the public on Wednesday. The menu will also include thick-cut french fries and a seasonal salad, as well as beer and spirits.

Since opening Noodle Bar in 2004, the 37-year-old chef has amassed a stable of 11 restaurant concepts in New York, Toronto, and Sydney.

In 2011, Chang launched a magazine, Lucky Peach, and just this spring he introduced New Yorkers to Maple, his food-delivery service backed by $22 million in funding.

When he first talked about Fuku at this year's SXSW, he mentioned its correlation to fast-food giants like Chick-fil-A and In-N-Out. So, ostensibly, Chang has plans to take Fuku far beyond Manhattan. We'll just have to wait and see. 

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Sonia Faruqi has investigated animal farms around the world.

In an exclusive, edited excerpt from her first book, "Project Animal Farm," she describes what happened when she, Brick, and Will, the owners of the farm she was living on, came across a chicken that had escaped from its cage.

It was rancid and repulsive with thousands of cages arranged in three endless columns.

Each cage was the size of a microwave but confined four or five hens, summing up to 13,000 hens in the factory.

Cages were the epitome of cold, steely efficiency. Hens drank water from a dripper at the back of their cage, and they ate yellow-brown pellets off a feed belt at the outside front of their cage.

They lived underneath a manure belt that sagged under the waste of the hens above, and they stood on a wire floor that was slanted so their eggs would roll automatically onto the egg belt running parallel to the feed belt outside their cage.

Each cage was a small, self-sufficient, automated black box. 

And yet there were six hens far down one aisle of cages, walking around.

Will strode in the direction of the fugitive hens. He opened the door to the room’s cooler, saying, “Chickens always go into the cooler," and captured them.

Clutching them three to a hand, upside-down by their legs, he brought them back to the cages.

When just one hen remained in his hands, he turned around to face me. “Since you helped me catch them,” he said, “you can cage this one.”

During the hen hunt, I’d acted as a useless accomplice. If I took the hen, I would change from abettor to abuser. 

One part of me ordered, “Don’t cage the hen,” for confining the hen to a cage would be like twisting or tearing off her legs — she would never walk again.

The other part of me countered, “Cage the hen,” for a rejection of Will’s effusive offer would be a slap to Brick and Will’s faces. (I was living with them in their house.)

“What’s going on?” Will asked me. “What are you waiting for? It won’t bite, if that’s what you’re afraid of.”

“I’m just trying to decide which cage to put the hen in,” I said.  

My fingers closed around the hen’s legs. So far, in all the time that I’d spent at my host family’s factory farm, I’d been surrounded by hens, but I hadn’t touched any of them.

The only point of human interaction with hens was with dead hens when their carcasses were extracted from cages.

In my hand, the hen felt like an extension of my own hand, and we were bonded in that moment of contact.

Unwilling to fling my hen into a cage by her legs, I turned her upright.

“Don't!!” Brick hollered.

Before this moment, I hadn’t even noticed the hens’ wings, for they remained pinched to their sides in their cages. Now, I saw that a hen’s wingspan measured more than the width of the entire cage she shared with others.

The hen propelled herself into the air.

Brick launched into a creative string of curses. I acted apologetic, but felt ecstatic, for the hen was free (at least for now), and Brick still trusted me. The hen hunt was a handshake of friendship.

Excerpted from Sonia Faruqi’s "Project Animal Farm: An Accidental Journey into the Secret World of Farming and the Truth About Our Food" (Pegasus Books, July 2015). Copyright 2015. Reprinted with permission of the publisher.

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When you buy prepackaged chicken parts at the grocery store, you are typically paying more for convenience. Don't be intimidated by cutting up the whole bird yourself.  David Mawhinney of Haven's Kitchen breaks down the cuts step by step. And save the extra parts for stock!

Produced by Justin Gmoser and Megan Willett

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Shake Shack, the hottest burger joint in the world, is experimenting with chicken.

It's testing a tasty fried chicken sandwich at three Brooklyn locations this summer. The company won't say whether or not it plans to expand the chicken to its 68 other locations around the world. 

We tried the sandwich, which just went on sale today, at one of the Shake Shacks in Brooklyn. While there, we met Mark Rosati, the head of culinary operations for Shake Shack. 

Rosati was there, along with Shake Shack's VP of marketing to get a sense of what people thought of the sandwich. (Our verdict: delish.) 

We asked him about the development of the sandwich. He said it was two years in the making. When he started working on it, he didn't even have a vision for what it would be. He just landed on chicken, which he says is "having a moment" right now. 

When we asked him about Shake Shack's sandwich, he gave us a detailed breakdown of exactly what he was going for with the sandwich. Here's Rosati:

I know a lot of people think that chicken breast can be dry, but I think if it's cooked properly it can be very juicy and very flavorful. 

We wanted to give the chicken a lot of structure. Chicken is a blank canvas, that's why it's exciting for me to work with it. Beef can be so big and bold and has its own unique flavors that it can take a lot of different sauces and still stand out.

Chicken really doesn't stand out. It's a blank canvas. So I wanted to add some classic southern inspired flavors to it.

At the same time, I wanted to echo the buttermilk flavor in the sauce. So, I played with a lot of different flavors and tried a lot of different hot sauces and what I love best is the buttermilk provides a tanginess and the pickles provide that vinegary note to cut through the richness and keep it from being too heavy.

The lettuce, too, is doing something similar. It's adding crunch, to give you a refreshing note. Because everything else can be very flavorful, lettuce is like, "I'm not trying to do anything but be refreshing here, guys! I'm not trying to compete." If it wasn't on there, you'd notice something was missing.

So all these different elements we thought long and hard about to try create something that's just perfect. 

Breading is classic. A little bit of pepper, a little bit of cayenne, a little bit of smoke paprika, nothing too crazy. We try to create classic comfort food. 

SEE ALSO: How Shake Shake's fry screw-up allowed it to make fried chicken sandwiches

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HARRISBURG, Pa. (Reuters) - A Pennsylvania couple has come up with a solution to soaring U.S. egg prices: Rental chickens.

RentTheChicken.com is the brainchild of Jenn and Phil Tompkins, of Freeport, Pennsylvania, northeast of Pittsburgh. More than just a cost-beater, they see their business as a way to change how people think about food.

"It changes the mindset of people when they know where food comes from," said Jenn Tompkins, 38. "Pretty soon they'll have tomato plants and be turning the chicken manure into compost."

Since starting their home-based business in the summer of 2013, they have rented chickens, either directly or through affiliates, to about 200 customers in 12 U.S. states as well as Ontario and Prince Edward Island in Canada.

Interest has been spurred by a surge in U.S. egg prices, which rose a record 85 percent last month after an outbreak of bird flu led to the culling of millions of laying hens nationally, according to U.S. Labor Department data.

For about $400, depending on location, the service provides two laying hens for the four to six warm months of the year, plus a chicken coop and a guidebook.

The hens typically produce eight to 14 eggs a week, and at the end of the rental period customers have the option of buying the chickens or returning them.

Hope Stambaugh, 37, and her husband Paul, 40, rented four hens this year for $600, which they are raising along with their four young children in Export, Pennsylvania, a Pittsburgh suburb.

"I love the idea of knowing where my food comes from," Hope Stambaugh said. "How special for my kids to see that food does not necessarily come from the store."

Municipalities vary widely in their attitude toward urban chicken farming. Philadelphia bans it, Tompkins said, while Pittsburgh earlier this month relaxed its licensing requirements to allow homeowners with lots of a minimum size to raise small numbers of chickens, ducks or hornless goats, or to keep bees.

Stambaugh said she plans to buy the chickens, named Jessie, Fluffy, Lacey and Princess, at the end of the rental period, and is thinking about moving further out in the country to add a few more.

(Editing by Scott Malone and Eric Walsh)

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Better burger chains like Smashburger, Shake Shack and Five Guys have exploded over the last decade. 

Now, demand for "better chicken" is heating up. 

Research firm Technomic provided data for which chicken chains are growing the fastest.

We selected restaurants that grew their number of locations by at least 11% last year. We ranked them by number of units.

Zaxby's

Number of US restaurants in 2014: 660

% change from previous year: 11%

Sales in 2014: $1.3 billion

Zaxby's is a Georgia-based chain known for its fried chicken fingers, crinkle-cut fries and giant slices of Texas toast.

The restaurant's house salad is another customer favorite, which is unusual for a fried chicken chain.

Zaxby's has restaurants in 16 states, primarily in the South, and it has been growing rapidly. The chain just opened its 700th restaurant, up from 660 last year.

Wingstop

Number of US restaurants in 2014: 658

% change from previous year: 11%

Sales in 2014: $622 million

Wingstop, which recently went public, has been called a cross between Chipotle and Buffalo Wild Wings. The chain's wings are cooked fresh — never frozen — and every batch is made to order. 

Wingstop prides itself on focusing only on its wings. The menu doesn't offer anything else, except for a couple side items like french fries and cole slaw.

Rapper Rick Ross is among the chain's supporters, and he owns 25 Wingstop franchises. The chain recently reported that sales are up 9% in the most recent quarter, which is double what analysts were expecting.

Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers

Number of US restaurants in 2014: 215

% change from previous year: 22%

Sales in 2014: $381 million

Raising Cane’s serves fresh — never frozen — chicken tenders with sides of coleslaw, Texas toast brushed with butter and garlic, and french fries. Drinks include sweet tea, a popular beverage in the South.

Customers rave about the juiciness of the tenders, which are marinated for 24 hours before they are breaded and fried.

In a 2014 survey by research firm Sandelman and Associates, Raising Cane’s tied for fourth place among the nation’s top 150 chains.

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - McDonald's Corp and Tyson Foods both severed ties on Thursday with a Tennessee farm where workers were seen stabbing, clubbing and stomping on chickens in an undercover video shot by animal rights activists.

The videotape, which was unveiled by Mercy For Animals at a news conference in Los Angeles, depicts gruesome animal cruelty toward the birds at what the group said was T&S Farm in Dukedom, Tennessee, which was under contract to Tyson Foods.

Tyson supplies chicken meat to McDonald's, the world's biggest fast-food chain, for its McNuggets.

Representatives for T&S Farm could not immediately be reached for comment.

"Animal well-being is a priority at our company and we will not tolerate the unacceptable animal treatment shown in this video," Tyson spokesman Worth Sparkman said in a written statement.

  "Members of our animal well-being team are investigating, however, based on what we currently know, we are terminating the farmer’s contract to grow chickens for us," said Sparkman, adding there were currently no chickens on the farm.

McDonald's said in a statement it supported Tyson's decision and "we find the behavior depicted in this video to be completely unacceptable."

The fast-food giant said it was working with Tyson to investigate the situation further.

"We’re committed to working with animal welfare and industry experts to inform our policies that promote better management, strong employee education and verification of practices,” McDonald's said.

An investigator for the Weakley County Sheriff's Office said the agency had opened an investigation into the farm and was working with prosecutors.

On the videotape, which Mercy For Animals activists said documented three weeks of animal abuse at the farm, workers can be seen stepping on birds' necks, stuffing them in cramped cages and bludgeoning them with clubs.

"You don’t work for PETA, do you?” a worker in the video is heard asking the Mercy For Animals representative before repeatedly hitting one of the birds with a spiked stick.

"Remember that for five years in a row, Tyson awarded grower of the year to this facility. So it’s too little, too late,” Mercy for Animals President Nathan Runkle told the news conference. He said the farm typically housed over 120,000 chickens.

McDonald's announced earlier this year it would phase out its use of chickens raised with certain kinds of antibiotics at its 14,000 U.S. restaurants as part of a major restructuring plan to reverse a long sales slump.

(Reporting by Jonathan Tolliver and Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Peter Cooney)

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KFC has executed a remarkable turnaround in its US business in the last year.

According to Citi Research analysts, the chain's momentum is getting a major boost from one popular promotion: The $5 "Fill Up" meal.

The meals include an entree, a drink, several sides, and a dessert — all for $5.

There are five different "Fill Up" combos featuring chicken tenders, chicken breasts, pot pie, and other options.

"We believe the positive sales momentum is likely to continue," Citi Research analysts wrote in a research note. "Of note, $5 Fill Ups continue to resonate very well and lower gas prices remain a tailwind."

Analysts said the recently launched $20 "Family Fill Up" should further drive sales.

KFC's same-store sales grew by by 7% and 3%, respectively, in the first two quarters of 2015. By comparison, comparable sales fell by more than 2% in the first half of last year.

The $5 meal could help KFC win back its position as the top chicken chain in the US by giving it a huge advantage over Chick-fil-A, where a similar meal would cost more than $7 in most markets.

Chick-fil-A surpassed KFC last year to become the No.1 chicken chain in the US by sales.

Here are all the $5 meal options:

• 3-piece Tenders, mashed potatoes & gravy, biscuit, medium drink, and chocolate chip cookie
• "Famous Bowl," medium drink, and chocolate chip cookie
• Breast Piece, mashed potatoes & gravy, biscuit, medium drink, and chocolate chip cookie
• pot pie, medium drink, and chocolate chip cookie
• Drumstick and thigh, mashed potatoes and gravy, biscuit, medium drink, and chocolate chip cookie

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