WINSLOW -- The world's fourth-largest producer of poultry vaccines says it has bucked the recession and is responding with a $4.2 million expansion.

Lohmann Animal Health International Inc., which employs most of its 105 workers at its 375 China Road location, reported a 10 percent increase in sales from the previous year.

Lohmann did that in the face of a 9 percent reduction in poultry production, partly a result of a diversion of corn feed into ethanol production.

David Zacek, chief executive officer at Lohmann, said the company's close connections to the poultry industry have helped it to beat the competition.

"The biggest single focus for us is that we're the only (vaccine) company that's actually in the poultry business," Zacek said from his office, overlooking construction crews working in the mud and rain of late June. "Our competitors are the giant pharmaceutical companies. We can identify with the customer and the customer can identify with us."

Lohmann, originally founded as Maine Biological Laboratories Inc., by Kenneth Eskelund in 1954, is expanding with two new buildings to modernize its isolation-testing facilities, as well as its production building.

Weekly, the company receives 100,000 eggs in refrigerated trucks from companies such as Perdue Farms and Tyson Foods. Technicians sanitize and process an injected seed virus.

"They are inoculated into the eggs, go in incubators to allow the virus to grow and infect the eggs," Zacek said. "The eggs are opened up and the virus is extracted. We kill the microorganisms, then formulate vaccines into the correct dosage.

"The companies introduce the dead viruses into the chickens. The chickens' immune systems then make antibodies."

The object is to protect the bird against diseases such as salmonella.

Zacek said it is "urban myth" that crowding causes chickens to be susceptible to salmonella, which derives from feces.

"Feces on eggs is more prominent in free-range European chickens because of a lack of oversight," he said. "Salmonella is ubiquitous. When the eggs are on conveyer belts, they're kept clean."

Vaccines slowly evolve -- probably added at a rate of one or two per year, Zacek said. The formulas are not public information.

"It's like Coca-Cola," he said. "We all know what sugar is and we all know what caramel is. It's all on the label, but we don't know how to make it.

"You have to know how to do this. You have to be trained how to do this. For me, it's like an orchestra. In order for them to make music, they all have to be doing the right thing at the right time."

Travis Dunton, of Pittsfield, has learned the process from the ground up. Dunton, 42, is head of production.

"He manages four teams of people," Zacek said. "He started as a janitor 20 years ago. He manages people who have master's and doctoral degrees. He's taken advantage of his training."

Advertising, Zacek said, was a key element in the company's public-relations campaign, as it rebounded from a federal investigation in 2001-2005 that led to the arrests of four executives. The executives, who received jail sentences and were fined, were convicted of smuggling a bird-influenza virus into the country in 1999.

"The people who were involved are no longer with the company, but it still hurt the image of the company," Zacek said. "We began a campaign to improve our image. We began a series of ads focusing on the people of the company and its commitment."

Dozens of local residents work in Lohmann's buildings, occupying about 30 acres.

Pat Smith, of Winslow, is head of regulatory affairs. Lynn Clark, of Winslow, is director of human resources and Crystal Olsen, of Pittsfield, is director of finance. Katrina Bragg, of Sidney, is product manager, working with advertising agencies.

Larry Grard -- 861-9239

lgrard@centralmaine.com