Jack Reed: “Since March of this year, the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management's Division of Agriculture has been…”

“Since March of this year, the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management's Division of Agriculture has been working to contain an outbreak of Low Pathogenic Avian Influenza in a poultry operation in Foster, Rhode Island, as well as a live bird market in Providence. The virus has been definitively identified as H7N2 Avian Influenza, of the same genetic sequence as the virus recently found in nearby poultry operations in Connecticut. Little Rhody Farms, the last of the traditional egg houses in Rhode Island, currently houses 32,000 hens producing brown eggs for sale in markets and food stores. Sales and distribution of eggs from the farm have declined due to customers' concerns that the produce may be tainted, and a federally imposed quarantine that has frozen the operation at half capacity. To eliminate the risk of the disease spreading further and to give the farm a greater chance to survive, state officials have strongly recommended depopulating the infected flock and disinfecting the premises. We have been unable to secure financial assistance from USDA to make depopulation possible.”