328,000 Md. chickens to be killed; flu found

328,000 Md. chickens to be killed; flu found

03/08/04
Gretchen Parker
Associated Press

Pocomoke City, Md. - The discovery of avian influenza in Maryland compelled agriculture officials to order the slaughter of 328,000 birds on two huge commercial chicken farms, nearly four times the number killed when two Delaware farms were infected last month.

The cases in Delaware and on Maryland's Eastern Shore are from the same H7 strain, which is not harmful to humans, authorities said Sunday.

Maryland agriculture officials confirmed Saturday that a farm with about 118,000 chickens was infected. They ordered the slaughter of those birds, as well as 210,000 others at another farm about a mile away under the same ownership.

The slaughter began Sunday and was expected to take until Tuesday.

More at the Cleveland Plain-Dealer

Poultry? This has got to be hurting these Agribusinesses.

My worry is that these birds will end up on our table, since the article says this strain is not dangerous to humans. What are they going to do with all those birds incinerate them?

And, what about our poultry prices going up? That's alot of birds and there maybe more farms infected that we don't yet know about.

This whole "Agri-business" concept should be questioned. Having such huge numbers of animals raised on who knows what kind of feed and kept in close quarters is a breeding ground for strains of all kinds of viruses and new bacteria that spread like wildfire among the population.