Chicken Growers Hope
Measures Will Prevent Flu Breakout
October 12, 2005 — By David Blackburn, Messenger-Inquirer,
Owensboro, Ky.
President Bush heightened awareness
of avian influenza -- or the bird flu -- last week when he compared the
potential devastation on an outbreak to that of the 1918 flu that killed
an estimated 50 million people.
But area chicken growers and a company that buys from them say they
aren't yet worried about an American outbreak of the virus.
Recent reports of human illnesses in Asia with what was once a bird-only
disease has, however, has led to a greater awareness and diligence about
bio-security measures.
"There's a lot to lose, not only for the company, but also the growers,"
said Nancy Butler of Calhoun, a contract producer for Perdue Farms, on
Tuesday.
Perdue Farms -- which has a plant in Cromwell in Ohio County -- always
has strict measures for the grow houses, corporate spokeswoman Julie
DeYoung said.
Access is limited to grow houses, which have screens to keep out other
birds, she said.
Disinfection of the houses is routine, and regional veterinarians and
company flock supervisors keep a close eye on the birds, she said.
"We routinely test flocks for (bird flu) whenever there is a health
issue even if we don't suspect that it is an issue," DeYoung said in a
phone interview from the Salisbury, Md., corporate headquarters.
"We take measures constantly," said Butler, a Perdue producer for nine
years.
Pans of water containing disinfectant are kept outside the doors to the
two, 40-by-500-foot houses that hold Butler's 40,000 chickens. Anyone
going in or coming out dips their boots in it, she said.
"That way we're not tracking in diseases," which is a concern with the
local blackbird population, she said.
Houses are decaked -- machine removal of bird droppings between flocks
-- and maintenance workers follow growers' rules around the houses,
Butler said.
Growers check to see if any animals, especially birds, are raised at the
homes of their children's friends, she said. And equipment shared
between growers is carefully cleaned, she added.
Butler checks the chickens' water consumption each day. A decline is an
early indicator of possible sickness, she said.
If a veterinarian is summoned, they come promptly, she said.
"The quicker you get a handle on these things, the better," Butler said.
Perdue not only warns State Fair-going growers about visiting the
poultry area, but also notifies them of scares in other states, Butler
said.
That way, they know to be alert when traveling to, or having visitors
from, those states, she said.
There are no confirmed cases of human bird flu or its vaccine-resistant
Asian strain in the United States, said Mark Sears, environmental
services director with the Green River District Health Department.
Transmission has been bird-to-bird or bird-to-human, Sears said.
The big concern "public health-wise is if the bird flu virus mutates and
could be transferred person to person," he said.
In Asia, entire flocks are killed to slow the outbreak, Sears said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending
quarantining and culling suspected ill birds, he said.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection
Service is making plans with the CDC and other federal agencies in case
of an outbreak, according to the APHIS Web site.
"Certainly, we'd participate with those to the extent our flocks are
affected," DeYoung said.
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Source: Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News |