Poultry checked for bird flu
HOGEYE, Ark. (AP) — State officials are checking backyard chickens in an area of western Arkansas to see if they have avian influenza, cases of which led to the destruction of 15,000 hens earlier this month.
The state Livestock and Poultry Commission said the bird flu strain is not harmful to humans, but it can hurt the poultry industry if it spreads unchecked.
Officials established a staging area in Hogeye, which is north of Strickler, where the contaminated flock was found just over two weeks ago. Livestock and Poultry Commission Director Jon Fitch said any birds found with the virus are destroyed.
“We’re ... going to those backyard flocks that we have found and we are actually doing the bleeding and tracheal tests on those and sending those specimens to Little Rock,” Fitch said.
Fitch said the state is following established protocols for how to respond to bird flu outbreaks.
“It’s always taken very seriously. Part of the protocol is that you test all poultry of all types within a 6.2-mile radius and that’s what we’re doing,’’ he said.
In commercial chickens, it’s standard procedure to test before processing, which is how the contaminated hens at a hatching farm in Strickler were first discovered. He said the hens were to be processed and blood samples sent to the state lab showed the virus was likely present.
Within a few days all commercial chicken houses in the area had been tested and the 15,000 birds affected were killed and buried. The next step was for the commission to go door-to-door, checking for other cases.
Fitch said field and lab testing would take about a couple of weeks. Poultry and eggs in that 6.2-mile radius are also being quarantined.
Springdale-based Tyson Foods, Inc. began killing 15,000 hens from a flock that at the end of May tested positive for antibodies of H7N3, a less virulent strain of the bird flu virus. The potent H5N1 bird-flu virus has killed 240 people worldwide and scientists worry it could mutate into a form that spreads easily among humans.
Wisconsin losses are extensive

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Agriculture experts say crop losses due to heavy flooding in Wisconsin could reach the tens of millions of dollars.
University of Wisconsin-Madison farm management specialist Bruce Jones said lower yields will also put more pressure on food prices for consumers.
Ben Brancel of the federal Farm Service Agency in Wisconsin works with farmers who have lost crops, buildings and livestock because of storms. He said farmers will also lose money because of poorer yields on crops planted late because of flooded or muddy fields.
Extension crops agent David Fischer says in Dane County alone, farmers collectively could lose more than $20 million as a result of ruined crops.
Michigan tomatoes safe to eat

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The government says Michigan-grown tomatoes are safe to eat.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has determined the state’s tomatoes aren’t associated with the recent outbreak of salmonella. Michigan Department of Agriculture Director Don Koivisto said June 13 the state has about 500 open-field tomato farms and 15 hydroponic or greenhouse tomato operations that focus on local distribution.
The state’s open-field tomato harvest doesn’t begin until July. Koivisto says consumers should shop for produce at local farm markets or look for the Select Michigan label at area grocery stores.
Argentina breaks up blockade
BUENOS AIRES (AP) — Argentine police in riot gear broke up a farmers’ highway blockade June 14, briefly arresting 19 demonstrators including a prominent leader of a three-month protest against an increase in grain export taxes.
The arrests near the city of Gualeguaychu and Argentina’s river border with Uruguay were broadcast on national television and threatened to inflame a tense standoff between farmers and President Cristina Fernandez’s center-left government.
Strike leader Alfredo de Angeli and the other demonstrators were later freed following noisy protests in the capital demanding their release, including one protest outside the government house. Riot police brought in water tanks and monitored the demonstration, but there were no clashes in Buenos Aires.
“The government is not going to pacify us like this – on the contrary. The protest will continue,” de Angeli told Cronica TV after his release.
Cabinet chief Alberto Fernandez accused striking farmers of “generating a climate of growing public unrest.” He said 19 people were arrested.
The crisis was touched off by the president’s decision this spring to raise export taxes on grains more than 10 percent, saying farmers have benefited from rising world prices and the profits should be spread around to help poor Argentines. Growers countered that they need to reinvest the profits and the higher taxes make it difficult for them to make a living.
Three months of bitter protests and road blockades have emptied supermarket shelves and led to shortages of meat, oil, flour, vegetables and fuel. Farm goods are the largest source of foreign currency in Argentina, which is the world’s third biggest exporter of soy and corn.
President Fernandez has refused to repeal the tax increase and government officials have said they would guarantee free movement on roads across Argentina.
The farm strike has been joined by cargo truckers, who have been idled by three separate farm strikes that all but halted grain exports for weeks. They have vowed to protest, blocking about 200 roadways, until the farm strikes are resolved.
Three barges hit Iowa bridge

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Three barges loaded with corn broke loose from a towboat and slammed into a bridge over the swollen Mississippi River, halting traffic between Iowa and Illinois, authorities said.
The two-lane bridge between Dubuque and East Dubuque, Ill., was closed following the June 9 wreck. No one was injured. One barge, which started sinking, was unloaded the following day and removed, said Dena Gray-Fisher, a spokeswoman for the Iowa Department of Transportation.
Workers were trying to unload the other two barges that remained floating but pinned under the bridge. A tug boat was pushing 15 barges when three broke loose and the remaining barges collided with other barges along the shore. They were collected and secured.
Traffic was rerouted to a bridge that connects Dubuque to Wisconsin, a trip that added about 10-12 miles to get to East Dubuque in Illinois, said Dubuque Assistant Police Chief Terry Tobin. The tow boat’s owner, Marquette Transportation Co. of Paducah, Ky., was investigating the collision, said company Vice President Steve Royce.
The Julien Dubuque Bridge opened in 1943. It is a continuous steel arch truss bridge. The longest span is 845 feet, with a total length of 5,760 feet. The bridge is one of two over the Mississippi River in Dubuque. The other, which carries traffic to Wisconsin, remained open.