14.05.2015

An eastern South Dakota farm with 1.3 million egg-laying chickens is the first in the chicken-production business in the state to be infected with avian influenza virus.

Flandreau-based Dakota Layers, which accounts for nearly half of the state's almost 2.7 million egg-laying chickens, reached out to the state veterinarian Wednesday after it noticed an unusual number of dead birds in one of its nine barns.

A South Dakota State University lab confirmed the presence of the highly pathogenic H5N2. 

Dakota Layers produces more than 90,000 dozens of eggs daily and ships about 70 percent of its eggs to California.