Please read our letter regarding our response to the current Avian Influenza threat, and the serious risk that it presents to poultry flocks.

Dear valued customer,

By now, we are certain that you are well aware of what is going on globally, nationally, regionally, and perhaps, even within your state. Avian Influenza has made itself known recently, all across the United States. Fortunately, hatcheries like ours, in cooperation with state and federal agencies, are well prepared for the serious hazard that Avian Influenza presents to poultry flocks.

We at Jenks Hatchery are committed to preventing the spread of Avian Influenza.

We already are a closed facility, meaning that we do not allow any outside vendors, customers or visitors within our hatchery facility.

Additionally, we employ the use of a truck wash station which all vehicles entering the hatchery facility perimeter must pass though. In light of current events, we have also closed our front entrance entirely, so that all vehicles, even employee vehicles must pass through our truck entrance wash station before even entering the facility property.

We are confident that we exceed most biosecurity standards, however, the following additional steps below have been taken to ensure that we are doing all that we can to keep us from contributing to the spread of Avian Influenza.

1. All employees of Jenks Hatchery are required to wear a fresh change of clothes, upon reporting to work. Disposable coveralls are required for certain jobs within the hatchery.
2. We have foot baths at all entrances/exits around the hatchery facility, as well as in key areas within the hatchery to prevent the spread or movement of bacteria or germs, from room to room or process to process.
3. All of our flocks are tested regularly for Avian Influenza.
4. Due to the fact that all of our flocks are tested regularly, if an outbreak were to occur in our breeders, we would be notified long before the eggs reached our hatchery, the eggs would be condemned, and the infection contained at the breeder farm.
5. This may be suprising to many of our customers, but we do not have any breeder flocks located in Oregon or Washginton. We have breeder supply in key locations throughout the US, but not in one concentrated area. This diverse spread is intentional, as this allows us to maintain a certain degree of separation from our breeder supply, so that in the event an outbreak occurred in a particular state, we would still be able to bring in hatching eggs from our other supply locations.
6. Using approved disinfectants, we fog our hatchery facility weekly, to ensure that our work areas remain clean between hatches.
7. For pickup orders at the Jenks Hatchery Feed Warehouse, we are in the process of installing customer foot baths at the entry doors to our warehouse, so that customers can feel free to browse our feed warehouse, while mitigating the risk of a customer inadvertently spreading Avian Flu from their farm or other farms and other customers on busy local pick up days, where many customers are visiting our warehouse for chick and feed/supplies pick up, at one time.

We are committed to the health and safety of our flocks and that of our many loyal customers.

We are continuing to monitor the Avian Influenza national outbreak, and are closely following all requirements/recommendations, set forth by USDA-APHIS, and the Oregon Department of Agriculture in order to prevent contributing to the spread of Avian Influenza.

You can read by clicking the link below, what you can do to prevent/mitigate the spread of Avian Influenza on your farm, and within your flock.

https://www.aphis.usda.gov/publications/animal_health/bro-protect-poultry-from-ai.pdf

We thank you all for your continued support and greatly value your business! Together, we will all get through this.

Best Wishes,

The Jenks Hatchery Family