, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- Delaware agriculture officials have killed 73,800 chickens in the second outbreak of the dreaded bird flu found since Friday.
Tuesday's chicken kill followed the discovery of the highly contagious disease on a farm south of Dover, Del., the Wilmington, Del., News Journal reported Wednesday.
All 73,800 birds at the Sussex County farm in north Delaware, which has a contract to supply Perdue, were killed. The county produces more chickens than any other in the United States.
The Sussex County farm is five miles from the Kent County farm that was found last Friday to have bird flu.
State officials do not know if the Kent County farm was the source of the Sussex County farm's infection, or if the strain of bird flu was the same on each farm.
"We can't emphasize enough the seriousness of this and what it means to the industry. We really do have people's livelihoods at stake here," said Michael T. Scuse, Delaware secretary of agriculture.
There are 2,090 commercial poultry producers in Delaware. Together they are $494 million poultry industry that supply four key processors -- Allen Family Foods, Perdue Farms, Mountaire Farms and Tyson Foods.
