Chicks raised to lay eggs are lost on a large farm in Ohio

This week we ramped through a large commercial farm in western Ohio. This has taken another blow to the state's egg industry, which has raised hundreds of thousands of chickens to lay eggs and is already upset by the effects of the bird's flu outbreak.

Fires and state officials did not specify how many birds were killed in the fire.

Ohio is one of the nation's largest egg-burning states, producing around 10 billion eggs a year, according to the state's coalition of farmers. The onset of avian flu in the United States in 2022 killed millions of egg-laying chickens, raised prices, and led to a nationwide shortage.

Most of these outbreaks took place in western Ohio, including Dark County, where the fire was located.

New Madison Volunteer Fire Station Chief Robert Cook said he was sent to the New Madison Piretz, on the outskirts of New Paris, near the Indiana border, just after 6am Tuesday.

Firefighters from four Ohio counties and two Indiana counties struggled to tap natural water sources covered in ice, deploying their gear through cold cold, snow and thick smoke .

By the time the fire went out at about 1pm on Tuesday, the main building, which had been carrying thousands of chickens, had been destroyed.

“It was a complete loss,” he said.

The barn where the fire broke out was authorized to house 280,000 prets, Ohio Department of Agriculture Director Brian Baldridge said Friday. Pillets are kept until they reach 16-18 weeks of age and are grown until they are transferred to other facilities as spawning hens. Mr. Baldridge said he doesn't know how many people were lost in the flames.

“This farm is one of the largest in Ohio in terms of total prets raised,” he said in an email.

The company had permission to operate a “intensive animal feeding facility,” Baldridge said it mentioned operations to house a large number of birds. An employee at New Madison Puppet declined to comment. Official statements did not reveal that the number of other buildings on the farm had been damaged.

Dark County Sheriff Mark Whitaker said the avian flu is a “absolutely important” concern in the county and north Mercer counties, home to the state's largest poultry farm.

The fire on an Ohio farm “issues the injuries in this scenario and humiliates poultry producers in the area,” Sheriff Whitaker said. “There are millions of birds in this county.”

Sheriff Whitaker said the office sent a drone to help investigators during the fire, but there was “preliminary” information that the cause was not suspected.

The Ohio State Fire and Explosion Department is under investigation, spokesman Jarrod Clay said in an email Thursday.

“We expect the dollar to be high,” Clay said.

Avian influenza went to the US in 2022 after being detected in Canada. It has encouraged the recent egg shortage that has raised prices, focusing attention on any developments that affect supply, and urged Waffle House to add an extra egg charge.

As of the first week of February, 23 people were reported this year in Arizona, California, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Indiana, and Washington, Washington. The bird flu outbreak occurred, resulting in 21.1 million birds. .