Avian Flu And How It May Affect The Small Flock Owner

By Daniel Campeau

How can this current stain of Highly Pathogenic Avian Flu affect you as a small flock owner? There are several layers to this question. It really affects EVERYONE to some extent from consumers to small flock owners!

From a Human Health Standpoint, so far no one has gotten sick from this strain of Avian Flu. We have been very lucky from that standpoint. There is NO danger of getting this flu virus from eating cooked eggs or poultry meat. For more detailed risk factors please visit http://www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/

From a Consumer standpoint this disease has affected egg and poultry meat prices already.

From a Small Flock Owner Standpoint, this strain of Avian Flu is carried by seemingly healthy migratory waterfowl. The biggest threat to our North Carolina flock owners are in the spring and fall migratory season. So far, 231 farms in the Midwest and West coast areas have been affected and depopulated and there has been over a hundred million dollars of financial loss directly related to this disease. It is potentially a BIG Deal for all of us.

If this strain of highly pathogenic bird flu gets into your flock, most of your birds will be dead within three days. Since many of our Small Flock owners have a personal relationship with their birds it can be very devastating to their owners and families to loose whole flocks of birds both from an emotional and financial standpoint.

What can we do? As small flock owners, you must treat this as a potentially very contagious bird disease that is easily spread from one flock to another. We need to keep visitors out of our poultry pens and follow NC laws that state that we have to keep our birds on our own property. If you have to let people into your chicken pens, make sure that are wearing disposable boots and coveralls. Try to keep birds indoors especially during spring and fall while migratory waterfowl are flying overhead. Keep birds away from farm ponds and grassy areas around ponds. Do not order biddies from Midwest or West coast hatcheries until the threat of this virus is determined by authorities to be near zero. Wear different foot gear to agri- supply stores than you wear while doing your poultry chores.

What do you do if you have sick birds? If you have more than one chicken with respiratory issues that looks like it is on death’s doorstep you may want to contact Rollins Diagnostic lab at (919) 733-3986 to make an appointment to take the bird in before it dies so it can be humanely euthanized and necropsied to see what the cause of illness was.

Source:ncsu.edu