Hickman’s Family Farms loses 3 million egg-laying chickens to bird flu

PHOENIX — The president of Hickman Family Farms took time Thursday to explain what happens next after a recent bird flu outbreak.

Glenn Hickman told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s The Mike Broomhead Show that avian influenza was detected at two West Valley egg farms with a total of 3 million chickens.

“We will lose 100% of those birds,” he said.

The company detected the illness on May 15, Hickman said. The Arizona Department of Agriculture later confirmed it.

“We saw an uptick in mortality in the barns, and we took samples and they were diagnosed to have bird flu,” Hickman said.

Are there any health risks consumers should be worried about?

Hickman said consumers don’t have to worry about health problems related to the outbreak.

“In terms of food safety, there’s never been any instances where someone was got sick with bird flu from eating an egg,” Hickman said.

Additionally, shoppers don’t have to worry about contaminated eggs showing up on Valley grocery store shelves.

“As soon as the diagnosis is in, the eggs are no longer available for sale at retail. So we don’t use any of those eggs,” Hickman said.

In fact, chickens succumb to avian influenza so quicky that they stop laying eggs, he added.

“Production goes down dramatically very quickly,” Hickman said.

How will news of bird flu in West Valley egg farms impact grocery prices?

Despite news that the avian influenza has hit millions of their flock, Hickman doesn’t foresee egg prices bouncing back up.

“The net effect is that we are going to not probably bump the needle very much when it comes to retail pricing at the stores,” Hickman said.

However, he thinks it will take his business two years to bounce back to full production.

“Right now, without some intervention, without being able to find some baby chicks that maybe somebody else has or something like that, it’s going to take us 20 months to get back to full production,” Hickman said.

What could solve the issue?

He has long advocated for egg-laying chickens to receive vaccines against bird flu.

“We’ve asked our state department of agriculture … to help promote the idea of allowing use of vaccine in our flock. Let us be a test,” Hickman said.

However, conflicting business interests from those who raise chicken for meat rather than eggs make this difficult.

“The broiler industry is adamant that they don’t want this to happen,” Hickman said. “It’s a shame that in order for one side of agriculture to prosper, the other side must suffer.”

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