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Bird flu in one way or another is wiping out poultry in South Korea Published: Monday, 21-Apr-2008 Disease/Infection News Following the announcement by officials in South Korea of another bird flu outbreak, 5.3 million birds are expected to be culled to control the spread of the deadly virus. This latest outbreak in South Korea is the 17th case of bird flu in three weeks and is the country's fastest and biggest ever outbreak of avian influenza. Officials at the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries say that the case which tested positive for the H5N1 virus, appeared on a...

Lawyers suing Pilgrim’s Pride in Alabama said Wednesday’s roundup of undocumented employees at other company plants underscores their claims that the chicken-processing giant illegally is hiring immigrant workers to suppress wages. “Assuming that these individuals being detained are found to be in this country illegally, I think it reinforces our contention that there has been an ongoing practice of employing illegal workers at Pilgrim’s Pride,” said Jeremy Hutchinson, a Little Rock, Ark., attorney who is soliciting plaintiffs for a potential class-action suit against the company. Pilgrim’s Pride, the nation’s largest chicken company with more than 54,000 employees at 37 plants,...

CLEVELAND (AP) -- Federal immigration authorities raided seven Mexican restaurants in four states Wednesday, arresting 56 people, including 11 accused of conspiring to harbor illegal immigrants. The immigrants were primarily undocumented Mexicans forced to staff the restaurants for long hours with little pay to work off smuggling fees and rent, authorities said. Ten individuals were arrested in Mentor and Willoughby in northeast Ohio, at Jalapeno Loco Mexican Restaurant and two houses, said Greg Palmore, spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Two face charges of conspiring to harbor illegal immigrants and the rest face immigration violations. The arrests began at...

Federal agents began a probe into immigration violations today in Chattanooga and several other states. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents along with Chattanooga police raided the Pilgrim's Pride plants in South Chattanooga this morning. They loaded vans with suspected illegal immigrants. Other agents hit Pilgrim's Pride plants in Florida and Arkansas. The probe centers around an alleged scam to provide fake identification for illegal immigrant workers. Pilgrim's Pride reportedly is cooperating in the investigation.

FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU — Chicken farming in Iraq is moving toward pre-war levels, as Coalition forces work with farmers to overcome challenges. There are about seven functioning chicken houses in the region where 3rd Battalion, 7th infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division operates, and dialogue has begun with the owners on how to increase production. One of the first areas where the unit discovered chicken houses was the community of Abu Lukah. It has four chicken houses, three of which are functioning. The first visit by the unit was at the end of January during which...

Pilgrim's Pride Corporation on Wednesday announced it will close a chicken processing complex and six of its 13 distribution centers in the United States. None of the impacted facilities are in Texas. Company officials said the action was in response to what they deemed a crisis facing the U.S. chicken industry from soaring feed-ingredient costs resulting from corn-based ethanol production."Our Company and industry are struggling to cope with unprecedented increases in feed-ingredient costs this year due largely to the U.S. government's ill-advised policy of providing generous federal subsidies to corn-based ethanol blenders," said Clint Rivers, president and chief executive officer....

FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU, Iraq, Feb. 25, 2008 – To some, it might be laughable that the economic welfare of an entire community relies on thousands of flightless birds, but in the farming communities of southern Baghdad, chickens represent a significant way ahead. A member of the State Department’s Baghdad 7 embedded provincial reconstruction team is helping these communities establish themselves as centers of poultry production. “Some of these farmers had over 100,000 chickens at one time,” said Mike Stevens, the team’s agricultural advisor. Stevens, a native of Park Rapids, Minn., said farmers from Adwaniyah, Arab Jabour and Hawr Rajab...

This is none other than Rhode Island’s best rooster crowing contest and in America, number one contest. The applause is a cut section of the applause in the song; King Jesus is a Listening All Night Long, by the 5 blind boys’ of Alabama. The characters are, Clara the RI Hen and Joe Beak RI rooster at left bottom and Sam Loud at bottom right. Voice of contestant #1 Joe Beak is real rooster sound and contestant #2 Sam Loud voice is of o7jimmy.

Gainesville -- Officials at Mar-Jac Poultry said they were shocked to find out Thursday that federal officials suspect the company might have ties to terrorist funding. Company Vice President Doug Carnes said at least a half-dozen U.S. Customs agents spent all day Wednesday gathering financial records and charitable contribution files. They were "real nice, professional and complimentary," he said, but they didn't disclose the nature of their visit. It was only on Thursday that Carnes was alerted by company officials in Virginia as to what the agents were looking for. "I'm shocked. I'm in disbelief. I've worked for them for...

BAGHDAD — With nearly five years of war taking a toll on Iraq’s domestic poultry industry, overall chicken and egg consumption is down in the country, while 40 percent of the commercial eggs consumed in Baghdad are imported. But with recent security improvements, achieved through the cooperation of local residents and a counter-insurgency strategy implemented by Coalition Forces, an opportunity has been gained to resume production. In Mahmudiyah, an agricultural community south of the Iraqi capital, and a traditional hub of Baghdad province’s poultry industry, some of the most violence of the war effectively halted production of a variety of...

KARGULI VILLAGE, Iraq — To build a poultry-based association, American business ideas and Iraqi cultural ways will have to merge. This is especially true in the fertile Euphrates Valley, where agriculture was a fairly profitable business just a few years ago.As part of America’s armed forces of reaching out to civilian communities in an effort to reduce the hold al-Qaida in Iraq and other insurgents have on the population, small units are seeking ways to improve the lives of Iraqis in their areas of responsibility. For the Rakkasans of Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 187th Infantry, 101st...

The plaintiffs in a lawsuit accusing Tyson Foods Inc. of hiring illegal aliens to work at poultry plants are focusing on the meat producer’s relationship with the League of Latin American Citizens. The class-action suit in U. S. District Court in Eastern Tennessee claims Springdale-based Tyson Foods knowingly hired illegal aliens to work for wages below what American workers would take. It was filed in April 2002 on behalf of former Tyson workers in several states, not including Arkansas. Trial is set for March 3. The plaintiffs in Trollinger v. Tyson are chicken plant workers who said they were harmed...

US and Chinese officials recently met in Beijing for agricultural trade talks. However, the two parties failed to agree with issues regarding poultry trade. China's zero-tolerance for salmonella in raw poultry was discussed in length. "How can you produce poultry without traces of salmonella? It's killed when you cook it," said USDA's Undersecretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services Mark Keenum, who led the US delegation. As for China, "They simply reaffirmed their position," he stated. On the other hand, Keenum said that the USDA is working to produce rules that would allow China to export cooked chicken products to...

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security says the nation's chicken houses could be added to the list of potential terrorism targets. Under the department's chemical security standards, facilities with more than 1,785 gallons of propane gas could be considered high-risk. Nearly every poultry grower on the Delmarva peninsula would be affected beacause most chicken houses use propane for heat. If designated a security risk, chicken house owners would be required to complete vulnerability assessments and develop site security plans. Senators Mikulski and Cardin from Maryland and Carper from Delaware have sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael...

<p>ROANOKE, Virginia — Virginia banned all live poultry sales and shows for the rest of July following the discovery of avian flu antibodies in a flock of 54,000 turkeys on a poultry farm.</p> <p>State veterinarian Richard Wilkes issued an order Monday canceling all sales and exhibitions, Elaine Lidholm, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, said Tuesday. The ban remains in effect until July 30.</p>

Over 100 Poultry Workers in South Carolina Test Positive for TB Acting on reported TB case of one of the workers at the Columbia Farms factory, Health Officials in conjunction with other authorities decided to formally evaluate the entire processing plant and conduct a close-contact investigation. There were 900 workers at this site, but in accordance to a CDC algorithm that assesses risk contacts, officials only tested 286 of the factories employees. Out of this group, 131 exhibited a positive skin test for tuberculosis. Tuberculosis (TB, Tuberculum Bacillum) is chiefly caused by a species of bacteria called mycobacterium tuberculosis. This...

Associated Press NEW YORK -- NEW YORK Tyson Foods will no longer use antibiotics to raise chicken that is sold fresh in stores and will launch a $70 million advertising campaign to tout the shift, the nation's largest meat producer said Tuesday. The company said fresh chicken raised without antibiotics was shipped to stores Monday and will be sold beginning later this week in packaging that emphasizes that there are no artificial ingredients. "We're providing mainstream consumers with products they want," Tyson Chief Executive Richard L. Bond said at a news conference. Consumers will have to pay slightly more for...

Chicken bones show Polynesians went to Chile By MAGGIE FOX - Reuters | Tuesday, 5 June 2007 A chicken bone found in Chile provides solid evidence to settle a debate over whether Polynesians travelling on rafts visited South America thousands of years ago – or vice versa, New Zealand researchers have said. The DNA in the bone carries a rare mutation that links it to chickens in Tonga and Samoa, and radiocarbon dating shows it is around 600 years old – meaning it predates the arrival of Spanish conquerors in South America. "These chickens are related to hens from Polynesia,"...

Friday is International Respect for Chickens Day Every so often a press release comes scratching at the door and just CROWS for your attention. Why did this press release cross the road? To stick up for chickens! MACHIPONGO, Va., May 1, PRNewswire — United Poultry Concerns is pleased to announce our Third Annual International Respect for Chickens Day, May 4. We urge everyone to do an ACTION of compassion for chickens that day — from writing a letter to the editor to tabling at a local mall to showing the movie Chicken Run to going vegan — for life. What...

Those familiar with the political scene know the unexpected is often expected, and March 2 was an example of that when opponents to the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) and Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) marched to the state Capitol in Austin. The event included people from all over Texas, either walking or riding one of the many horses, tractors, or flat-bed trailers. The march included a woman with a caged chicken on the head, children enjoying the excitement, and plenty of signs that ranged from “Don’t Tag Texas” to “Think green ... not pavement.” One person in the parade was NAIS...