Franklin Co. Officials, Poultry Company Working on Rat Problem

By MJ Kneiser, WLHR Radio, Lavonia

Franklin County’s Environmental Health Department is working with the company that owns a poultry operation on Toms Creek Road to eliminate a huge rat infestation.

The company that contracted with the poultry farmer on Toms Creek Road is OK Foods, Inc. out of Fort Smith, Arkansas.

Their parent company is Mexican poultry producer, Industrias Bachoco.

Franklin County Environmental Health Director Louis Korff said representatives from OK Foods met with him at the poultry farm.

“After some research I was able to find out the parent company of OK Foods and was lucky enough to have one of their representatives in the area,” Korff said. “He met with me at the farm within an hour of making the call. We met with the owners and walked through the (chicken) houses with the representatives and the owner and identified the problems that were there.”

Sunday morning, Franklin County Sheriff’s deputies came upon miles of dead rats along Highway 145 near the Stephens County line.

Some people took videos and some motorists said at one point Sunday so many rats were running over 145 it looked like the road was moving.

Korff said after walking the entire farm, he and the representatives from OK Foods came up with a game plan to eradicate the rats.

“We came up with a plan to eradicate the rats that are there, set up a perimeter baiting to keep any more rats from leaving the property so that this doesn’t happen again. I also walked along with the representative as he was describing the plan to the owner and he began immediately to set up the baiting program,” Korff said.

Another problem over the weekend was the migration of the rats to surrounding farms and properties when workers removed the chickens from the poultry houses on Toms Creek Road last Friday night.

That prompted numerous complaints from neighbors.

Korff said the OK Foods reps also spoke to the neighbors Monday to reassure them the rat problem would be taken care of.

Also, Korff said he has contacted authorities at the state level.

“I did contact the Department of Agriculture, advised them of the situation, and left it with them to continue the fight,” Korff said. “Right now, the situation is stabilized and the owners are being very cooperative.”

Korff said his office will continue to monitor the clean up and will be doing periodic checks to ensure a rat infestation of this magnitude never happens again.