Sanderson Farms issued a statement saying that 60 of the 880 broiler houses at its independent farms have been flooded, destroying about 1.7 million broiler chickens.
About 30 farms housing approximately 211,000 chickens each are isolated by floodwaters and cannot be reached by feed trucks.
Purdue Foods and Tyson Foods both said their losses have been “minimal”, but they did not provide figures or any details.
The North Carolina Pork Producers Association reported that several manure lagoons have been breached and some others are topping up as rains continue, especially in the north-eastern part of the state.
But meat-packing plants have reopened.
