A lawsuit has been filed against a poultry operation in northwest Iowa that was hit by avian influenza. Michael Foods Egg Products Company, a subsidiary of St. Louis-based cereal maker Post Holdings Inc., filed the lawsuit in federal court in Des Moines on Monday.
Michael Foods alleges that Hawkeye Pride Egg Farms of Corwith, Iowa breached an egg supply contract. Michael Foods claims it is suffering irreparable harm and is seeking a court order stopping Hawkeye from breaching the contract, a judgment against the egg supplier, and damages “in an amount sufficient enough to compensate Michael for Hawkeye’s breach.”
Michael Foods primarily sells liquid and precooked egg products. The state of Iowa is number-one in the nation for egg production and the avian influenza has hit the state hard, with more than 30-million laying hens, and more than one-million turkeys that have been affected by the bird flu.
Hawkeye Pride is a division of Sioux Center-based Center Fresh Group, which lost more than 5-million hens due to the avian flu.
(Reporting by Doug Broek, KIHK, Sioux Center)