H7N9 Flu Found in Tyson Breeder Hens

First Piggies, now chickies, only cows are left

The reasons to buy organic grow by the day. Case in point, 15,000 breeder hens being raised for Tyson Foods Inc., by a contracted grower in Lincoln County, Tennessee, were destroyed after tests showed the presence of a strain of avian influenza called H7N9 — a cousin of the far more devastating H5N1.

“Although we are not at risk of disease from H7N9,” writes Kara Rogers with Britannica Blog, “we and certain other mammals such as pigs play a crucial role in viral evolution. For example, if upon exposure to a harmless strain of avian influenza we are infected with another strain of influenza, such as a strain that causes the typical human version of flu, we provide an opportunity for the related viruses to exchange genetic material. This exchange could give rise to an infectious, deadly version of a previously harmless avian influenza virus. This is how the deadly H5N1 virus is suspected to have evolved.”

Russia has placed ban on pork from the Tyson Foods plant in Perry, Iowa. And as of as of May 12, Russia will no longer import poultry from Pilgrim’s Pride’s Sumter, South Carolina, plant.

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