"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...