By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published May 13, 2006
CUMMING, Ga. - Going to the Milford family chicken farm is like trying to infiltrate a high-security medical lab.
After the car's wheels are sprayed down with disinfectant, visitors are outfitted with blue biohazard suits, clear boot coveralls, tight latex gloves and lunch-lady hairnets. Then, before entering the chicken coop, guests must immerse their feet in a soupy but powerful iodine cleanser.
Like other poultry farmers across the country, the Milfords are taking extreme precautions to prevent their livelihood from being infected with the deadly avian flu virus, which has devastated chicken markets in Europe, Asia and Africa but has yet to be detected in the Western Hemisphere.
As chicken producers for Tyson Foods, they are required by the company to ban nonessential visitors from the farm and test selected chickens before they're sent to the slaughter - one of 15,000 tests the company conducts each week for bird flu, five times the number of tests it did last year.
Health officials worry the virus could spark a pandemic if it mutates into a new strain that could be easily transmitted between people.
If the avian flu strain does reach the United States, chicken growers are confident it likely won't ever reach their isolated chickens, let alone humans. They will, however, likely have to handle widespread fear from consumers.
Fear of a bird flu backlash in the United States has major producers and family farmers ramping up their efforts to keep consumers at ease.
Growers are quick to point out that none of the 205 cases of avian flu confirmed by the World Health Organization resulted from eating poultry.
