BY ROBERT J. SMITH

Posted on Saturday, January 21, 2006

The Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry on Friday failed to convince a judge to dismiss a lawsuit meant to block the agency from taking soil samples at four east Oklahoma farms.

Oklahoma County District Judge Barbara Swinton denied the state agency’s request that the civil lawsuit filed by Poultry Partners be dismissed. She referred the case to Delaware County where it originated.

“To me, what happened is very significant,” said Bev Saunders, a representative of Poultry Partners, an organization of 400 farmers in eastern Oklahoma and western Arkansas. “A judge heard our side and said there’s reason to hear our case. We’ve maintained that what they want to do is above and beyond, and we do have a right to question it.”

Among the concerns of Poultry Partners and poultry companies who supply them with chickens is a fear that traipsing from one farm to the next taking soil samples will spread the deadly avian disease laryngotracheitis, or LT.

“At any one time, we’ll have millions of dollars of our assets, our chickens, in the hands of the growers,” said John Elrod, an attorney for Simmons Foods Inc. in Siloam Springs. “We have an interest in protecting our assets.”

Morril Harriman, the executive vice president of The Poultry Federation, said dozens of poultry farmers in Northwest Arkansas, southern Missouri and eastern Oklahoma have been impacted by the bird disease. He didn’t know exactly how many have been affected.

“It is serious,” Harriman said. “It’s not something that by any means is just a made up concern. The companies have been encouraging growers to increase biosecurity measures, to stay on the farm as much as possible and not to be around other growers unless they are disinfecting.”

The diseases poses no risk to humans, Harriman said.

The companies also believe the state agency’s desire to take the soil samples is evidence collecting for a federal lawsuit filed against the companies by Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson, Elrod said.

On Oct. 18, attorneys for the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry obtained search warrants to take samples at farms owned by Joey Reed, Kenny Glenn and Jim Pigeon, all of Colcord, Okla., and Julie Anderson of West Siloam Springs, Okla. The farmers refused to allow inspectors on their farms. The next day, Poultry Partners sought a restraining order to stop the tests.

Edmondson sued eight companies in June in U. S. District Court at Tulsa, accusing them of polluting the Illinois River watershed with poultry litter. Those companies are Cargill Inc. of Minneapolis ; Cobb-Vantress Inc. and Simmons Foods Inc., both of Siloam Springs ; George’s Inc. of Springdale ; Peterson Farms Inc. of Decatur ; Tyson Foods Inc. of Springdale ; and Willow Brook Foods of Springfield, Mo., as well as egg producer Cal-Maine Foods Inc. of Jackson, Miss.