A northwest Iowa egg producer is asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to release a vaccine to guard against another outbreak of avian influenza this fall.

"The USDA has come up with a vaccine that is 100 percent effective against this disease. We would like to be allowed to use it," Dave Rettig, president of Rembrandt Foods, said last week at the Iowa State Fair. "We need to be allowed to use it to get ourselves back to work."

Rembrandt Foods, based in Spirit Lake, was one of the egg companies hit hardest by this year’s avian influenza outbreak. Its egg operations at Rembrandt, Iowa, and Renville, Minnesota, tested positive for avian flu. Another Iowa egg-laying facility in...