8/13/02

By MARK POWELL

Virginia contract poultry farmers can expect to be paid for the financial losses they’ve suffered from the five-month long outbreak of avian influenza. The outbreak led to the putting down of chicken and turkey flocks on 197 farms in the Shenandoah Valley and cost Virginia’s agricultural economy more than $130 million.
Officials at the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service announced Aug. 6 that the federal Office of Management and Budget approved the request of Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman for $69.2 million in economic assistance to Virginia.
The move, pushed for by state congressional leaders and the governor, is expected to result in contract growers getting checks from the federal government sometime in September. The state government is expected to match the federal funds.
APHIS spokesman Ed Curlett said APHIS checks will be on their way to Virginia poultry farmers and companies after an official rule is published in the Federal Register in September. APHIS knows who the affected poultry farmers are, so there will be no required signup for the checks.
Curlett said, “the USDA will pay all eligible losses of contract growers and up to 50 percent of eligible losses of the owners (poultry companies), minus any amount paid to the contract grower of a flock.”
Officials with Cargill said their growers lost an average of from $2,000 to $2,500 a week in income during the avian flu outbreak.
The USDA has also ruled that the value of poultry destroyed due to the low pathogenic avian influenza may be determined after destruction.
There have been no reported cases of avian influenza in Virginia since July 2.
Restocking has begun on some of the affected farms.
Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. president David Van Hoose said his firm was pleased with the federal decision. Pilgrim’s Pride, Cargill, Perdue Farms, Tyson and George’s Inc. are the major poultry companies affected by avian influenza in Virginia.
Hardest hit was Rockingham County, the nation’s top county for turkey production.
This is the first time the federal government has provided funds for a low-pathogen strain of avian flu. Outbreaks in previous years have involved high-pathogen strains that spread rapidly and killed birds quickly.
“We’re very excited,” said Matt Lohr, a Rockingham County broiler producer and president of the Rockingham County Farm Bureau. “They had been talking about it for a long time, … and a lot of people weren’t very optimistic about it” because this year’s outbreak was a low-pathogen variety of the virus.
Lohr said he had 25,000 broilers that were one day away from going to market when randomly selected birds in the flock tested positive for avian flu. That whole flock and 75,000 birds in his other three poultry houses were killed as part of the state’s effort to contain the virus. His farm underwent six weeks of quarantine and extensive disinfection procedures before he could get any more birds. He estimated a loss of $50,000.
“When you take $50,000 out of any budget it cuts pretty deep, so really, any money we get we’re glad to have it,” he said.
In April, Virginia Sens. John Warner and George Allen and Reps. Bob Goodlatte and Eric Cantor were among federal lawmakers who began lobbying U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman to apply for indemnification. While few details about the indemnification package were immediately available, Hobey Bauhan, president of the Virginia Poultry Federation, said he was “very encouraged and pleased” with the initial news.
Industry officials have asked the state to provide assistance as well. Bauhan called state assistance appropriate and “very much needed.”
Bruce L. Hiatt, president of the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation, called the indemnification package a step in the right direction.
“Given the considerable role poultry production plays in Virginia agriculture, we’re anxious to see our growers and our poultry-producing communities back on their feet,” Hiatt said. “I’m sure there isn’t a producer in or anywhere near the Shenandoah Valley who isn’t ready to close the book on this whole episode and get back to business.”