Flu fear affects local egg market

Aug. 01--NORTHUMBERLAND -- Some cautious work is being done at Thomas Poultry Farm, the region's largest egg producer.

The Stonebridge Road business, founded by Jared F. Thomas Jr. and his wife, Eleanor, in 1948, has about 200,000 hens, producing about 12,000 dozen eggs each day. Today the farm is run by Brian Thomas and Ken Bean.

"As far as egg producers go, we're really small," said Jen Thomas, who is one of 18 employees -- mostly family members -- who operate the plant. Most of the big guys have millions (of chickens). We feel like we're small enough to still do a good, fresh, quality product."

No incidents of bird flu have been reported in New York in the latest outbreak, considered the worst in U.S. history, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Still, Thomas Poultry Farm has strict rules in place to guard against the disease, which has resulted in the deaths of nearly 48 million chickens and turkeys at more than 220 farms in 21 states since the epidemic began in the spring.

"If you have it, you're out of business, basically," Thomas said during a visit last week to the poultry farm. "It's a big process to clean (a facility) and disinfect it. You basically have to start from scratch."

Before arriving at the farm for the interview, Thomas asked whether a reporter or photographer owned any chickens or birds, or if their cars had been parked in any parks where wild goose feces could have been picked up on the tires. (Both the reporter and photographer ran their cars through a car wash prior to the interview).

The safety procedures have been in place at the Thomas Poultry Farm since the 1980s, when an earlier version of the bird flu was detected as far north as Pennsylvania, Thomas said.

"We try to be careful with feed deliveries and supply deliveries -- anybody coming in, we try to make sure they're clean, their shoes are clean, their trucks are clean," she said.

The farm has also limited the number of people allowed into the hen barn itself; only critical employees and veterinarians get access, she said.

School groups that have visited the farm over the years, for instance, have been restricted to the packing plant, although tours are on hold completely for now.

"We're saying no to tours until this calms down," Thomas said.

Both the state and U.S. departments of agriculture recently issued protocols for farmers to follow to prevent spread of the virus, should it reach New York. The agency has also banned poultry from all fairs in the state this year, according to David Holck, director of the Farm Service Agency in Greenwich.

He said he and his staff now put single-use, plastic covers on their shoes whenever they visit farms that raise poultry, for instance.

Officials with the U.S. Department of Agriculture said the disease is likely spread through direct contact with infected birds or their feces, although research is ongoing. The epidemic out west began in the spring, as wild geese were migrating south through that region.

In the fall, those same flocks will be headed north through New York and New England states, and that has experts concerned about a fresh outbreak.

Those concerns were expressed anew Thursday, during a public hearing of the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Livestock and Foreign Agriculture, in Washington.

"The impact of the avian influenza outbreak has been devastating, and it is essential that we learn from the outbreak this past spring and put in place the proper steps to minimize the impact of a possible outbreak in the Southeast when the temperatures decrease this fall," said subcommittee chairman Rep. David Rouzer, R-N.C.

In the meantime, Thomas Poultry Farm has seen better prices for its eggs since the outbreak began.

The producer is paid for eggs based on surveys conducted by Urner Barry, a company that publishes regular market statistics for poultry, egg, meat, seafood and other producers.

"Each week, they call all chain stores to check on supply and demand, and they adjust the price accordingly," Jen Thomas said. "So, we're just based on supply and demand; we aren't government-regulated like the dairy industry, so if there's tons of eggs on hand, and nobody's buying them, the price goes down."

Thomas estimated the price of eggs from her farm have gone up about 30 percent since the flu outbreak began. But there has been another impact, specifically related to restaurants encouraged by state health inspectors to switch from shelled eggs to pasteurized, liquid eggs -- sold in milk carton-sized containers -- in recent years, Thomas said.

"Most of these birds that are gone out of the system are the ones ... being used to make the dried-egg product and liquid eggs," Thomas said. "So, a lot of people that use those have been calling us and saying, 'We can't get this product; can you help us out?'"

Stewart's Shops is a major client for the Thomas Poultry Farm, although the farm also sells eggs to area Hannaford stores and smaller restaurants and shops throughout the state and into Vermont.

Maria D'Amelia, a spokeswoman for Stewart's, said this week the business has had to cut back on the amount of liquid egg product and packaged hard-boiled eggs it delivers to its stores.

"We worked ahead to see what we could get to really stock our warehouse (once the avian flu outbreak happened)," D'Amelia said. "Certainly, we've seen supplies cut back anywhere from 30 to 50 percent (of the processed egg products)."

Stewart's has also worked to educate customers, with a video on its website explaining the avian flu crisis and its impact on egg prices and the availability of some products. On its website, the company, which picks up eggs daily at Thomas Poultry Farm, touts the benefit of sourcing its eggs locally.

"I really think customers have been pretty understanding in this situation," D'Amelia said.

Thomas said the vigilance will continue, although things would likely tighten up further if avian flu were detected within the state or region.

"It would be such a panicky situation for us," she said. "I don't know what else we could change, in all honesty, as far as our feed deliveries or our egg carton deliveries.

"I probably would have said, 'No. You guys (The Post-Star) can't come.' Any non-essential people would just be absolutely no."

___

(c)2015 The Post Star (Glens Falls, N.Y.)

Visit The Post Star (Glens Falls, N.Y.) at www.poststar.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.