US chicken, egg firms tighten security after Tyson bird flu case

Chicago

TOP US chicken and egg companies ramped up procedures to protect birds from avian flu on Monday, a day after the federal government confirmed the nation's first case of the virus at a commercial operation in more than a year.

The US Department of Agriculture said on Sunday that a farm in southern Tennessee that is a supplier to Tyson Foods Inc had been infected with the virus. All 73,500 birds there were killed by the disease, known as avian influenza (AI), or have since been suffocated with foam to prevent its spread.