By Allison Floyd
Chickens and eggs that may have been exposed to avian influenza were shipped to 37 states across the country, including Georgia, where officials ordered three small flocks destroyed on Tuesday to protect other birds.
Georgia is the top broiler-producer in the country, followed by Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, and North Carolina, but as highly pathogenic avian influenza spread rapidly across parts of the Midwest this spring, the Southeast was spared.
“I determined, the best option was to destroy the birds,” said Georgia’s State Veterinarian Robert Cobb. The birds, which included chicken and quail, were shipped from a farm in Iowa, the state that’s been hardest hit by bird flu. That farm tested negative before the birds were shipped in late May and early June, but has since tested positive.
In Georgia, the birds and eggs were shipped to one location in the western part of the state and two in the middle part of the state,” Cobb said. They were destroyed, but not tested for the virus.
“We are confident that we are going about this the proper way and we are removing all the hatching eggs and birds,” Cobb said. Other states have de-populated the birds shipped there, and some, like Georgia, helped the owners re-coup the expense of the birds and proper removal.
Poultry is Georgia’s biggest agricultural commodity by value and has a $6 billion impact on the economy.
Officials from various agencies – the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and state agriculture departments, poultry lab employees, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and public health officials – talk “daily” about concerns related to avian influenza, Cobb said.
The H5N2 strain isn’t a risk to humans, who can’t catch it. Proper cooking also destroys the virus.
Economic health is another matter, however. More than 43 million birds in 14 states have died of the disease or been euthanized since the outbreak began early this spring.
“We have to protect the poultry industry and keep the state’s economic engine running,” Cobb said. “We can’t just close the doors and ignore this.”
Yet, authorities have little control over mail-order purchases made over the Internet.
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