Burial of 2 million birds after avian flu outbreak raises concerns
By Kody Fisher
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SEYMOUR, Indiana (WISH) — Rose Acre Farms is getting rid of the more than 2 million birds that died because of the avian influenza in Jackson County.
Some people in that area aren’t happy with where the birds are being buried. The sight of backhoes and mounds of dirt are accompanied by the stench of rotting birds, depending on how the wind blows.
Pamela Claycamp said, “I don’t like it, but I guess I don’t have a choice.”
She’s lived in the area all her life. Her main concern is her brother’s nearby dairy farm. “He is pretty concerned. Cause if it gets in one cow they’ll all have to go,” Claycamp said.
The Indiana State Board of Animal Health says it and Rose Acre Farms are being very careful when transporting the dead birds from the farm to the burial site. Denise Derrer Spears, spokesperson for the board, said, “We do have a specified route for the trucks to travel from the farm to that burial site to make sure that there’s not an issue, or contaminating other farms.”
The site was picked carefully so that there would not be any contamination to the surrounding water supply. Derrer Spears said, “The setbacks from, like, wells and open waterways and those types of things exceed what the EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) even requires, so we made sure we were meeting or exceeding all of the requirements that were involved.”
The state and the farm also taking precautions to assure other animals aren’t getting into the pile of dead birds. “The birds are put in there as they are removed from the facility and covered each day, so this isn’t happening all at one time,” Derrer Spears said.
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