A Perspective on the AI Crisis in the U.S.

On April 27, 2015, Center Fresh Group in Iowa was hit with avian influenza. Within a matter of weeks, Center Fresh Group lost 9.9 million birds – 8 million layers and 1.9 pullets. Just six weeks earlier, Center Fresh Farm, which suffered a 3.8-million layer loss, had passed a full government-audited biosecurity inspection. The audit went so well, in fact, that it received a score of 100 per cent. When AI hit the U.S., Jim Dean, CEO of Center Fresh Group, thought that they’d be fine. “We thought we had the most robust biosecurity program that we could even think of,” he told the crowd at the 2015 International Egg Commission conference in Berlin, Germany. “We thought that we were fine.”

When all was said and done, though, they weren’t fine, and Center Fresh Group suffered enormous losses. Center Fresh Egg Farm lost 3.8 million layers; Sioux County Egg Farm lost 1.7 million layers; Centrum Valley Farms lost 2.5 million layers, and Sioux Center Pullets lost 1.9 million pullets. Since that time, Center Fresh Group has been working to repopulate its operations. The process began in September 2015 and will carry on into the first quarter of 2017.

When did you first find out that AI had hit your operations?

JD: I was in Las Vegas at the Urner Barry conference. My son received a call from our company veterinarian who said that we had high mortality and textbook clinical signs of avian influenza. Considering how fast the disease was moving and the number of infected farms, I had mentally prepared for the worst. I told my sons that we would get through this and that we will recover. Put your best face on and go out and tell the industry we’ve been hit… Hopefully to help others to get better prepared.  

What steps did you take to stop further losses to AI?

JD: We lost both Center Fresh and Sioux County on the same day; the farms are four miles apart. When Centrum Valley was infected in mid-May, my son decided to euthanize the infected flock that night to stop the spread of the disease. We were able to save one farm about a half mile away, which ultimately saved 3.5 million birds within four miles. Due to our success in stopping the disease our government is now recommending euthanizing infected flocks within 24 hours.      

How prepared would you say you were for this event?

JD: We had initiated extra measures to fight off the disease, but we feel there was so much of the virus in the air that it was attaching to almost anything that moved, including wind, so it broke through the best bio-security programs.  

How bio-secure would you say your facilities were at the time?

JD: On March 11, 2015, Center Fresh Farm went through a full government audited bio-security inspection. We received a score of 100 per cent without any deficiencies. We were infected April 27, 2015.

What happened following that first call?

JD: We notified the appropriate government agencies and started to develop an action plan. It would be impossible to list all the measures taken to try to mitigate the spread. There were many lessons learned.

How does one go about removing so many infected birds?

JD: It took a lot of people. We were euthanizing and removing 200,000 birds per day. We couldn’t keep ahead of the spread of the virus. The disease causes a horrible painful death for the birds over a three to four-day period.  

Managing the mass depopulation of our flocks was overwhelming, time-
consuming and difficult for our teams. What was terrible is that the disease was killing our hens more quickly than we could remove and humanely depopulate them. We also learned that swift depopulation was critical to limiting the spread of the disease. Working closely with our veterinarian, we used a variety of approved methods, including carbon dioxide gas. Again, our focus was on moving swiftly to prevent the disease from spreading to other flocks.

A challenge with disposal of mortality was that there were a number of options, including: burial, landfills, incineration and composting. But all had their barriers. Specific protocols varied from farm to farm and were based on a number of considerations. On our farms we used a combination of burial and composting for mortality disposal, always working collaboratively with the USDA and state and local authorities to ensure the process was properly and responsibly managed.

One of the partners with Center Fresh owned the adjacent farm, which we could use for composting. We did have days where we could remove more birds, but the birds had already died from the disease. There’s work being done to find better alternatives for mass euthanizing, it must be completed humanely and should be done within 24 hours of contracting the virus to stop the spread.

Did you ever find out how AI made its way onto your operations?

JD: I’m not sure anyone will know for sure. Two complexes broke on opposite ends of the complexes. One was not near a doorway, so we believe wind. The other one broke possibly by a door, so a worker could have tracked it in.

During the crisis, did you receive help from any outside organizations? If yes, who and how?

JD: Our community, Sioux Center, IA, had prayer services for our staff and companies, and the federal government provided for removal, disposal and disinfecting. It was the government and private industry working together.

Looking back now, is there anything you would have done differently?

JD: The governments, both state and federal, must do a better job of stamp out and eradication. At the time the state governments wanted to protect the identity of the infected operation as opposed to protecting the non-infected.

Are there any lessons you’d like to share with Canadian poultry farmers?

JD: If and when the virus hits, get the message out as quickly as possible through private industry and trade association. It’s imperative to act quickly – within 24 hours – to euthanize the birds to stop the spread of the virus. Centrum Valley proved that the virus could and can be stopped quickly. All producers are concerned about the well-being of their birds; it is much more humane to euthanize the birds quickly than to watch them die from the disease.

About Jim Dean
Jim Dean is the founding/managing partner and CEO of Center Fresh Group, which includes Center Fresh Egg Farm (3.8 million layers), Fremont Farms, L.C. (900,000 layers), Hawkeye Pride Egg Farm (4.6 million layers), Sioux County Egg Farm (1.7 million

layers), Centrum Valley Farms (7.5 million layers), Trillium Farm Holdings
(12.5 million layers), Center Fresh Africa, and Sioux Center Pullets (6 million annual pullet capacity). Jim was the founding partner/ CEO of Fremont Farms of Iowa.

Dean is the past Chairman of the Board of Directors of United Egg Producers (UEP), serving as Chairman until October 2015. UEP is a trade cooperative with membership that represents over 95 per cent of the egg industry in the United States. Today, Dean continues to serve on UEP’s finance committees.

Dean is also a past board member of the Iowa Poultry Association, the U.S. Egg Marketers, and the Midwest United Egg Producers.  In 2014, he was honored as United Egg Producer’s egg industries Producer of the Year. In 2009, he was inducted in the Iowa Poultry Association Hall of Fame.