Nearly 2 million chickens drowned in Hurricane Florence’s historic flooding, one of the country’s major poultry producers said.
Sanderson Farms announced Monday that at least 1.7 million of their birds perished when water rising from North Carolina rivers swamped dozens of farm buildings.
The flooded farms were independent suppliers raising chickens for Sanderson, the company said Tuesday.
The company also said about 30 farms near Lumberton — housing about 211,000 chickens — are cut off by floodwaters. Unless feed trucks can get to those farms soon, more birds could die.
North Carolina is a top US producer of poultry, hogs and tobacco, and agriculture contributes $87 billion to the state’s economy, making it its No. 1 industry.
The NC Pork Council said some hogs could also have died when farms flooded, but they didn’t have a mortality figure yet.
Some North Carolina hog pits were inundated with water and others overflowed — meaning there’s a risk that water supplies could be contaminated with bacteria like salmonella and E. coli.
The Department of Environmental Quality said an earthen dam at one hog lagoon in Duplin County breached and spilled its contents, and another dozen pits containing animal feces and urine overflowed or suffered structural damage.
Major flooding is expected to continue in the state after Florence’s passing or even worsen in some areas. Sixteen rivers in the state were flooded Tuesday, with an additional three forecast to peak by Thursday.
The storm has killed more than 30 people, most of them in North Carolina.
With Post wires