California Chicken Plant Sues Orkin over Cockroaches

A Central California chicken-processing plant has filed a lawsuit against a pest-control company over a cockroach infestation that caused the plant to close for two weeks.

Foster Farms in Livingston filed a lawsuit last month against Orkin LLC and its subsidiary Orkin of California in Merced County Superior Court. The lawsuit seeks damages for what the company called a failure to fulfill a cockroach-control contract.

U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors closed the plant Jan. 8 after finding cockroaches five separate times in four months.

Last fall, the agency had notified Foster Farms that the presence of cockroaches was a sign of unsanitary conditions at the plant. The closure in January came after inspectors threatened a shutdown because of salmonella problems at the Livingston plant and two other Foster Farms sites.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently said that there were 574 reported antibiotic-resistant salmonella illnesses tied to Foster Farms. The outbreak has been going on for over a year, and none of the company’s products have been recalled.

Foster Farms said it has put new measures in place.