Another Blow to Texas Agriculture

A massive explosion, a wildfire, and now Avian Flu in the Panhandle

What is going on in the Texas Panhandle around Amarillo? On April 10, 2023, I woke up to the horrifying news that a dairy farm in Dimmitt, Texas—about 60 miles southwest of Amarillo—had exploded, killing about 18,000 dairy cows. It was one of the deadliest fires involving cows in history, wiping out 3% of the dairy herd in Texas.

On February 27, 2024, I heard the news that Texas Governor, Gregg Abbott had declared a state of disaster in multiple Texas counties due to a wildfire that started near Stinnett, Texas, about 60 miles northwest of Amarillo. The fire ultimately burned over 1 million acres of pastureland and killed about 7,000 beef cattle. The cause of the fire remains officially unknown.

On April 1, 2024, Texas Health and Human Services reported the First Human Case of Avian Influenza in Texas, detected in a worker at a dairy farm in the Texas Panhandle (precise location not mentioned, but probably somewhere around Amarillo).

On April 9, 2024, the Texas Agriculture Commissioner announced that Cal-Maine Foods in Farewell, Texas—40 miles west of the dairy farm that exploded in Dimmitt—will cull 2 million chickens after a case of H5N1 bird blu was detected in its facility.

This is a great deal of disaster to occur in the Texas agricultural sector in just one year, and it’s all happening in the same area around Amarillo.

To be sure, I have NO IDEA if these incidents are linked or if there is sufficient grounds to suspect arson or industrial sabotage. I will say that one of my contacts in the Amarillo area believes that the circumstances of the wildfire that started near Stinnett are indeed suspicious and that the possibility of arson cannot be ruled out.

At this point, I am simply making the observation that this is a great deal of mayhem to be happening in the agricultural sector around Amarillo in just one year. I’ve had social contacts in the area for decades, and I can’t remember any reporting of disasters of this magnitude until April 2023.

Just out of curiosity, I wondered if any notable players in the Bio-Pharmaceutical Complex happen to have an operation in Amarillo. I didn’t have to look far.

Mérieux NutriSciences (MxNS)—a division of bioMérieux—has a micro-biology lab in Amarillo. Readers of this Substack may recall that bioMérieux is major French bio-tech company that built the BSL-4 lab annex of the Wuhan Institute of Virology that opened in 2018. Moderna CEO, Stephane Bancel, was CEO of bioMérieux when the company designed and began construction of the BSL-4 lab in Wuhan.

According to the website of Mérieux NutriSciences (MxNS), the company provides microbiology and pathogens testing, as well as whole genome sequencing for the agricultural industry.

Given that bioMérieux is known to be a collaborator of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, I hope that the company’s lab operations in Amarillo are subjected to regulatory scrutiny.

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