About the avian flu outbreak
- The highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5 has been detected in three of the four North American migratory bird paths: the Pacific, Central, and Mississippi. Georgia is in the Atlantic flyway.
- There have been 222 confirmed cases of infection in these states: Arkansas, California, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Washington and Wisconsin.
- Minnesota has had the most confirmed cases: 105.
- The most recent detection was June 9.
- As of Tuesday afternoon, 47,091,293 birds have been destroyed due to confirmed or suspected outbreaks.
- Major commercial farms and processing plants have strict biosecurity controls to try to prevent an outbreak. But many people with backyard flocks do not.
- State officials urge Georgians who keep chickens for personal use to move all birds into housing to prevent their exposure to wild birds or their droppings, monitor flocks for illness and to call the Animal Health Section at (404) 656-3667 with questions or concerns.
- Human health risk is low, but it's possible that human infections with these viruses may occur.
- There is no evidence that any human cases of avian influenza have ever been acquired by eating properly cooked poultry products.
Georgia’s multibillion-dollar poultry industry appears to have survived a substantial health scare this week, although hundreds of chickens belonging to three different families were killed.
State officials on Tuesday confiscated and slaughtered three Georgia chicken flocks over concerns some of the birds had been exposed to a devastating strain of bird flu.
Department of Agriculture officials told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution they do not believe any of the affected eggs and birds actually have avian influenza, which has led to the killing of more than 46 million chickens in 14 states, but they cannot take a risk.
State Veterinarian Dr. Robert Cobb told the AJC that Georgians at all three chicken farms purchased eggs or baby chicks from the same farm in Iowa. That farm had not tested positive for the avian flu when the purchases were made but has subsequently been found to be infected.
“The danger is very real,” Cobb said.
For Georgia, the mere threat of bird flu can cause multiple agencies to spring to action. The state has a 37-page emergency action plan involving nearly half a dozen state and federal agencies. As the nation’s largest poultry producer, where nearly $6 billion of chickens and eggs were sold in 2013, there is ample cause for concern.
For commercial poultry farmers, the avian flu is a frightening prospect.
“Keeping our chickens healthy is always a top concern,” Mike Giles, president of the Georgia Poultry Federation, said. “When something like the avian flu outbreaks are happening like they are in other states, it causes more concern for us.”
Cobb describes a scenario that resembles a race to prevent a deadly global epidemic, although this outbreak only affects birds. (There is believed to be little threat of a human becoming infected with avian flu.) In Iowa and the other states with known infections, each positive test results in a 10-kilometer quarantine zone. Another positive result adds another 10 kilometers. A farmer or poultry company can only send chickens or turkeys out of the zone with a permit.
“We were notified by USDA that in Iowa there were three shipments that came into Georgia from a premise in Iowa and so we were able to identify these premises,” Cobb said, noting the same thing was occurring in 37 other states where shipments were sent to multiple locations.
Suddenly, the threat multiplied. Georgia was fortunate only to have three known shipments enter the state.
“We immediately contacted the three premises, quarantined the premises,” he said. “Our options are either to test all these animals out and to therefore maintain the quarantine until such time we can prove over a time of multiple tests that these animals are negative, or to ‘de-populate’ these animals.”
Cobb said none of the three farms affected were commercial operations. Instead, all were smaller farms where eggs and chickens are grown mostly for personal use, although hundreds of eggs and chickens were destroyed.
Each Georgia location was quarantined while state officials worked with USDA to work out the compensation package for each affected owner. Then came the “de-populating,” a nicer way of describing the slaughter.
State officials could not immediately say exactly where the three farms are, although one is in Meriwhether County and the other two in central Georgia.
The Meriwhether County location belongs to Donna and Derrek Hay.
“It’s not a good day,” Donna Hay told the AJC after state officials left her farm.
Hay said she was first contacted by the Department of Agriculture about a week ago. Hay had kept about a dozen adult chickens and had 71 chicks ranging in age from four days to three months, plus several more eggs ready to hatch in an incubator. Although she's never sold any of her birds, she had considered it. Now, she finds herself flock-less.
When first contacted, Hay thought it was odd, but not worrisome. She was sure her birds were not infected and assumed the inspectors would come and reach the same conclusion. Instead, they took photos and videos and asked her for paperwork and then more paperwork and then more paperwork.
“Finally, he called me and I said, ‘Look, just tell me if y’all are taking my chickens,’ ” Hay said. “He said, ‘Yes, we are buying you out.’ ”
The state works with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to compensate farmers like Hay for their loss. Hay said the money will almost make up for what she’s spent.
At first, she was angry. But, she said, she came to understand.
“It’s pretty obvious the state vet and the USDA thought this was the only option,” she said. “I have to stop and realize it’s not just about me. If I were to have kept these birds, raised them, sent them off to someone else and had the same thing happen to someone else …”
Still, it was far from pleasant. Hay said the state sent men with a pair of giant plastic bins with holes cut into the lids. Running from the holes were big hoses connected to as gas tank. Into each bin went the chickens and the gas was turned on.
Now, she said, the department will keep her farm quarantined for another month and come back to help her disinfect her operation, and then she’ll have a decision to make. Does she raise another flock?
“I wasn’t sure at first,” she said. “But even the little bit of time they’ve been gone now with those chickens — it’s eerily quiet. I don’t hear those hens cackling or the roosters crowing.”
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