U.S. Poultry Farms Defend Against Bird Flu

A barbed wire fence is shown separating chicken egg laying facilities at the J.S. West Milling Co. egg laying plant in Hilmar, Calif. in this April 12, 2006 file photo. Only half of Americans are confident their government will deal effectively with the bird flu if it reaches the U.S., and they want strong steps including human quarantine and closed schools if there's an outbreak in the population, according to a AP-Ipsos survey. (AP Photo/Ben Margot, Files) (Ben Margot - AP)

HILMAR, Calif. -- Tom Silva's chickens pump out 1.4 million eggs a day, but his operation looks more like a prison than a farm.

To reach his hen houses, an intruder would have to scale eight-foot fences topped by razor wire, then sneak past surveillance cameras.

"Biosecurity" is the buzzword du jour at chicken, turkey and egg operations across the country. A bird flu pandemic sweeping through flocks in Southeast Asia and beyond has spurred American commercial farmers to tighten their defenses.

"This is certainly the biggest issue facing the industry today, no question about that," said Richard Lobb, spokesman for the National Chicken Council.

The stakes are especially high in California, where a $2.5 billion poultry industry ranks among the top 10 producers nationwide for dinner chicken, turkey and table egg output. State officials say migratory bird routes that stretch southward from the Bering Strait and down the West Coast could bring the disease by this summer.

A tradition of raising "backyard chickens" for eggs, meat, cockfighting and bird shows runs deep in some Asian and Hispanic subcultures here in the Central Valley. Industry executives and state officials say these backyard birds number in the millions, and they worry these birds out in the open could be exposed to sick migrating flocks.

Then they could pass the disease to their owners _ many of whom work at commercial poultry operations.

And there is painful precedent here. An outbreak of Exotic Newcastle disease killed more than 3.1 million birds, mostly poultry, in Southern California in 2002 and 2003.

Silva, vice president of the valley's J.S. West Milling Co., is as concerned about human carriers walking into his four facilities as he is about keeping sick birds out.

"If it gets into our industry, the only way to get it out is to euthanize complete complexes like this," he said during a tour of an egg-laying operation whose 1.5 million hens alone he valued at nearly $10 million.

The tour was brief, because no outsiders are allowed beyond the "STOP: BIOSECURE AREA" sign and razor wire _ not even the lab workers who collect blood samples once a month for disease testing. They too are on Silva's payroll.

Even the short tour provided striking evidence of the measures the poultry industry is taking to combat bird flu before it reaches America.