Iowa chicks sent as far away as Brazil to evade deadly bird flu

With the delicate birds just hours old, the president of Murray McMurray Hatchery hit the road around 1 a.m. on a Saturday to drive through the night to a friend's farm in Texas “just to have them in a safe place,” he said. Breeding chickens that are the valuable genetic source for egg-laying hens have gone into hiding as the outbreak of bird flu in poultry has developed into the worst animal-health emergency in U.S. history. Wood's breeding stock includes chickens with genetic lines that date back to the early 1900s.

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Iowa chicks sent as far away as Brazil to evade deadly bird flu