More Ark. Poultry Flocks Checked For Bird Flu


State officials are checking backyard chickens in an area of western Arkansas to see if they have avian influenza, cases of which led to the destruction of 15,000 hens earlier this month.

The state Livestock and Poultry Commission says the bird flu strain is not harmful to humans, but it can hurt the poultry industry if it spreads unchecked.

Officials established a staging area in Hogeye, which is north of Strickler where the contaminated flock was found just over two weeks ago.

Livestock and Poultry Commission Director Jon Fitch said any birds found with the virus are destroyed. Officials are checking backyards in a 6.2-mile radius around the area where the infected birds were found. Poultry and eggs in that radius are under quarantine.

Springdale-based Tyson Foods Inc. began killing 15,000 hens from a flock that at the end of May tested positive for antibodies of H7N3, a less virulent strain of the bird flu virus. The potent H5N1 bird-flu virus has killed 240 people worldwide and scientists worry it could mutate into a form that spreads easily among humans.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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