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Poultry farms
still recovering from Avian flu
The
Avian flu that swept through the Shenandoah Valley’s
poultry industry a year ago is gone, but the damage
remains. The federal government in December began doling
out relief payments to some of the growers and processors
but capped those payments at $51 million — not
nearly enough to cover an estimated $130 million in
losses, says Virginia Poultry Association president
Hobey Bauhan.
“If
they pay the entire $51 million, it obviously would
be a big help but there are substantial losses left,”
Bauhan says. Those losses “are still being felt
now” through the valley’s economy as suppliers
and others who depend on poultry growers as customers
see their income drop.
Poultry is big in the Shenandoah — Virginia ranked
fifth in the nation in 2001 in turkeys produced, and
eighth in broiler chickens. Broilers are the state’s
most valuable livestock, producing $441 million in cash
receipts in 2000.
Last
year’s outbreak from March through June affected
197 farms, most of them in and around Rockingham County.
During the outbreak, 4.7 million birds were destroyed.
Virginia
Business - February 2003
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