US meat processor Tyson Foods has said it is to cut up to 600 jobs at a chicken processing plant in Hope, Arkansas.

Company spokesman Ed Nicholson said between 500 and 600 jobs will be axed at the plant, starting from 4 October, reported Dow Jones News Service.

The Hope plant, which currently has a workforce of about 1,650 people, processes chicken, as well as handling the breading, battering and cooking of the meat.

Tyson Foods employs more than 120,000 people in the US and Mexico.