Cal-Maine Foods, Inc., the largest producer of fresh eggs in the U.S., temporarily shuttered one of its production facilities in Parmer County, Texas, following a bird flu outbreak that resulted in the loss of approximately 3.6 percent of its flock — nearly 2 million chickens.
The Cal-Maine Foods outbreak follows revelations from the Texas Department of State Health Services that a local man contracted bird flu due to a dairy cattle outbreak. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently confirmed several bird flu outbreaks in dairy cow herds in Texas, New Mexico, and Kansas.
The Texas man infected with bird flu is the second U.S. citizen infected by the strain. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) continues to downplay fears about the disease’s transmissibility, stating that the likelihood of a person contracting the bird flu is minimal. They noted that eggs that are properly cooked and stored pose no risk of transmission.
However, the case of the Texas man contracting bird flu from infected cattle appears to confirm the fears of Gregory Gray, an epidemiologist at the University of Texas. Following the dairy herd bird flu outbreaks, Gray predicted the disease could jump to humans. “We most recently saw the infections in goats, and we’ve all seen the wildlife being affected with the hotter pathogenic avian flu, including the strange infection of carnivores — bears and wolves,” Gray said. “It’s disturbing,” Gray continued. “We need to figure this thing out, because if the virus continues to change, it could move into other species, including humans.”
Texas is also struggling with tuberculosis outbreaks among its cattle, with the disease thought to have been introduced to the herds by infected illegal alien workers.