Iowa’s 60 Million Laying Hens Aren’t Being Monitored By Food-Safety Inspectors

60 Million Chickens In Iowa Are No Longer Monitored By Food-Safety Inspectors
Barrett & MacKay via Getty Images

In 2010, 550 million eggs were recalled after thousands of people were sickened with salmonella in an outbreak tied to farms in Iowa, the leading state for laying-hen production. Despite Iowa producing 15 billion eggs annually, amounting to $2 billion in sales, both state and federal food-safety inspections were halted there last year, the Des Moines Register reported on Sunday. The concern was that letting inspectors into laying-hen facilities could help to spread the virulent strain of bird flu that has been killing off birds in the tens of millions.

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