Up until this morning, a husband-wife turkey farming team near Ellendale was worried — among other things — about a southerly wind.

It was a wind Bob Wayne — who owns the turkey breeding facility with his wife, Lisa Dunn — said could carry swine flu from a proposed 4,000-pig nursery to his ventilation intakes.

However, after only Commissioner Chris Shoff voted to approve a conditional use permit to Matt Holland for the hog facility, the Freeborn County Board of Commissioners voted to deny the permit.

According to Freeborn County Attorney David Walker, zoning ordinance allows an application to be granted if the person applying meets all five conditions under the ordinance. Where Holland’s permit came in question was one of those five conditions: that the property’s use would “not be injurious to the use and enjoyment of other property in the immediate vicinity for the purposes already permitted.”

According to Holland, the biggest frustration following the ruling was that the planning and zoning commission had reviewed his permit twice and had, both times, recommended the permit for approval by the board of commissioners.

“For some reason, today, that wasn’t enough,” Holland said.

Clarks Grove-based veterinarian Tom Lang said swine flu has been found up to 1.3 miles away from a swine farm. The quarter-mile between the turkey breeding farm and hog nursery was not enough to protect the facility from risk of swine flu, which can transfer from pigs to turkeys and can do so through the air, he said.

“My opinion is that it’s not a matter of if swine flu is going to affect Bob and Lisa’s turkey farm,” Lang said. “It’s just a matter of when.”

Commissioner Glen Mathiason said the risk was too great to approve the hog nursery’s conditional use permit.

“It may never happen, but if it does, who takes care of the Waynes?” he said.

The danger, Wayne said, is not that the turkeys will die, but that their egg-laying capacity would be “greatly compromised.”

While hogs and turkeys have shared the same turf, Wayne said those turkeys are production toms. Production toms are worth about $3 a bird, he said. Breeding hens are worth about $21 per bird.

When Jennie-O purchases eggs, they pay $1.30, both Wayne and Jennie-O vice president of live production Jose Rojas said. With two flocks a year, Wayne said his breeding farm produces about 2.8 million eggs.

“Do your math, and you will understand what a high-value enterprise this is, and that these eggs are worth $3.4 million per year that come out of my barn,” Wayne said.

Rojas said the risk goes beyond Wayne and Dunn’s farm. Jennie-O combines laying hens from their facility with those from another in one location, and mixing those flocks would expose those birds as well, he said. Eggs are also mixed, Rojas said, and when they go through the hatching process, they will contaminate each other.

Lang said he currently serves approximately 100 swine clients, and he estimated that 90 percent have tested positive for swine flu.

According to Spencer Wayne, a nursery is a likely spot for swine flu to circulate. Spencer Wayne is both a veterinarian with a PhD in veterinary epidemiology — with an area of interest in swine disease epidemiology — and Bob Wayne’s son.

“Flu will be there,” Spencer Wayne said. “That’s a given, and it’s just part of the landscape if you’re in pig production. It’s what you deal with.”

However, Holland said those opposed to the permit did not provide evidence that the turkeys would become infected.

“Ultimately, my hog barn meets the requirements set forth by the county and it was denied based on opinion, not facts, and that’s where there’s going to be further (litigation),” he said.

Shoff also said he felt the board was not presented with research to back up the transmission from swine to turkeys, or with proof the hog nursery would be injurious to the turkey breeding population.

According to Walker, should Holland pursue further litigation — which Holland said he would — the issue would land before a court of appeals.

The court would evaluate two things, Walker said: whether there was a legal justification for the board’s decision, and whether there were facts in the record to support the board’s position. Statements provided during the public forum are considered a part of that record, Walker said, and can be considered as support for the decision.

“In this situation the board I think was very careful to follow the law and they were very careful to have a record that supports their decision,” he said.