Chicken Virus Requires Strict Controls

From the Science & Technology Desk
Published 4/15/2002 9:38 PM

ANNAPOLIS, Md., April 15 (UPI) -- Chicken farmers in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania and West Virginia are going to extraordinary lengths to avoid the spread of the highly contagious H7N2 avian influenza in chickens, Maryland officials said Monday.

"Our main concern is the spread of the virus at auctions or fairs of chickens or poultry used for pets or for private use," Dr. Roger Olson, Maryland state veterinarian, told United Press International. "The virus is not spread to humans and chickens for national consumption purchased in grocergy stories are highly regulated by the major chicken processors and the states."

"Chicken farmers can detect a sick chicken because it is listless and has labored breathing and immediately a diagnosis is made usually on the farm and if the H7N2 avian influenza is detected, all the chickens on the farm are depopulated (killed)," Bill Satterfield, executive director of DelMarva Poultry Inc., told UPI. DelMarva is a trade association of those in the poultry industry in Delaware, Virginia and Maryland.

"Under the best conditions, the chickens are composted and the bacterial action of the 150-degree-Fahrenheit temperature breaks down the meat and bones."

The heat of the composting kills the virus and the chickens end up as compost which looks like humus and after testing to make sure the virus is dead, can then be used as fertilizer, according to Satterfield.

Infected chicken carcasses can also be disposed of in a landfill, but that requires special trucks that have liners so no liquid or feathers can escape, and the truck itself is washed and disinfected before it leaves the farm.

"Once the influenza is detected on a farm, the farmers are advised to remove all shoes and clothing worn in the chicken house because the virus can live on clothing and equipment," Satterfield said. "The virus can live for several days in the chicken feces so we advise the farmers to be especially careful with shoes and tires -- we try to limit the traffic in and out of an infected farm and keep a log of who's been there."

The most recent infection of this virus was in 1983-84 when millions and millions of chickens were killed on 300 farms in Virginia and Pennsylvania.

"The controls are much tighter, we've learned out lessons," Satterfield said.

The secretary of agriculture in Maryland issued an order that prohibits the gathering of poultry from multiple sources at auctions, marketplaces, fairs, exhibitions, shows, or other events in Maryland.

The order also prohibits poultry from entering Maryland from any state in which any poultry flock remains under quarantine for avian influenza without written permission from the secretary of agriculture.

The major chicken processors that include Perdue, Tyson Chicken and Allen Family Foods transport the chicks to the farms, provide the feed for the chickens and remove the chickens from the farms, they carefully regulate there chickens, according to Don Vandrey, spokesman for the Maryland Agriculture Department.

H7N2 avian influenza has been found within the last four weeks in poultry flocks in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and in Virginia, where dozens of poultry farms are under quarantine. As of Monday, nearly 1.5 million domestic chickens and turkeys in Virginia have been or are waiting to be killed, Vandrey said. "So far, the virus has not been detected in Maryland," Vandray told UPI.

"Poultry is the top agricultural industry in Maryland and it is incumbent on us to do as much as we can to protect our producers," said Secretary Hagner R. Mister. "It is much better to prevent the disease from occurring than to try to eradicate it."

In Maryland, broilers alone accounted for 32 percent or about $480 million of all farm revenue last year.

Arkansas and Georgia lead the nation in chicken production, followed by Alabama, North Carolina, Texas, Delaware, Maryland and Virgina.

(Reported by Alex Cukan in Albany, N.Y.)
Copyright © 2002 United Press International

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