More than 18,000 cows were killed in an explosion and consequent fire at a West Texas dairy farm.
One person was trapped at South Fork Dairy near the town of Dimmitt on Monday but later rescued and flown to a hospital in critical condition.
Authorities have launched investigations into the cause of the fire, preliminary findings suggest machinery in the facility may have ignited methane gas.
The blast prompted calls from the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), among the oldest U.S. animal protection bodies, for federal laws to prevent barn fires that kill thousands of farm animals annually.
Only a few states, Texas not among them, have adopted fire protection codes for animal barns, according to an AWI statement. There are no federal regulations protecting animals from fires.
About 6.5 million farm animals have died in similar fires in the last decade, most of them poultry. The Texas fire was the most devastating US barn fire involving cattle since the AWI began tracking such incidents.
