Top secret vaccine chicken farms

The eggs for the swine flu vaccine are produced by dozens of farms classified by the US government as part of our country’s “critical infrastructure”.

To ensure it had enough eggs to meet pandemic-level demand, the government invested more than $44 million in the program over five years; more than 35 farms are now involved in this feathered Manhattan Project. No signs advertise the farms’ involvement in the program, and visits from the outside world are discouraged. The government won’t disclose where the farms are located, and the farmers are told to keep quiet about their work — not even the neighbors are to know.

These don’t exactly sound like free-range operations:

After nine months of service, [the chickens] are typically euthanized because they can no longer lay “optimal eggs,” Mr. Robinson said. “They’ve served their government,” he said.

(thx, micah)

• influenza
• medicine
• swine flu
• USA