Hickman’s Family Farms has lost 95% of its hens to the avian flu at its Buckeye operation, and hundreds of workers will lose their jobs as the facility will be forced to close down for nearly two years, company officials said.

Six million chickens have died over the last two weeks, they said.

“This devastating turn of events means the loss of life for the hens, the loss of jobs for hundreds of employees and the loss of an invaluable food resource both locally and far beyond the Valley,” Glenn Hickman, company president, wrote in a release.

Hickman said “the recent outbreak of avian flu at our westside farms was a tragedy that did not have to happen,” noting European countries have been vaccinating their flocks for a couple of years “and are gaining the upper hand on controlling this disease.”

The vaccine, he said, is made in the United States, “but we export to other countries while our flocks go unprotected.”