"We’re clean today," Steve Boomsma said late last week as he entered the Wright County Board of Supervisor’s room at the courthouse in Clarion. Being clean means another day the company’s pullet and egg-laying farms haven’t been affected by the avian flu, which has spread to more than 40 poultry farms across Iowa, including some in Wright County.

Boomsma approached the Wright County Board of Sup­ervisors a few weeks ago, asking the county for extra help in protecting their flocks. As the co-owner and the chief operating officer of Centrum Valley Farms, there’s a lot at stake.

The company has five layer sites in Wright County and one in Hardin County, with the ability to raise 7.5 million layers per year. The company owns eight pullet sites: six are in Wright County and two are in Franklin County.

The company has a capacity to raise 6 million pullets in a single year, which are used in the layer facilities.

The company produces about 1.87 billion eggs per year. Its products are trucked to New York and California and everywhere in between, Boomsma said.

County...