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PETALUMA, Calif. — Final month, Mike Weber obtained the information each poultry farmer fears: His chickens examined constructive for avian flu.
Following authorities guidelines, Weber’s firm, Dawn Farms, needed to slaughter its total flock of egg-laying hens — 550,000 birds — to stop the illness from infecting different farms in Sonoma County north of San Francisco.
“It’s a trauma. We’re all going by way of grief on account of it,” stated Weber, standing in an empty hen home. “Petaluma is named the Egg Basket of the World. It’s devastating to see that egg basket go up in flames.”
A yr after the hen flu led to document egg costs and widespread shortages, the illness often known as extremely pathogenic avian influenza is wreaking havoc in California, which escaped the sooner wave of outbreaks that devastated poultry farms within the Midwest.
The extremely contagious virus has ravaged Sonoma County, the place officers have declared a state of emergency. Through the previous two months, almost a dozen business farms have needed to destroy greater than 1 million birds to regulate the outbreak, dealing an financial blow to farmers, employees and their clients.
Merced County in Central California additionally has been hit exhausting, with outbreaks at a number of massive business egg-producing farms in current weeks.
Consultants say hen flu is unfold by geese, geese and different migratory birds. The waterfowl can carry the virus with out getting sick and simply unfold it by way of their droppings to rooster and turkey farms and yard flocks by way of droppings and nasal discharges.
California poultry farms are implementing strict biosecurity measures to curb the unfold of the illness. State Veterinarian Annette Jones urged farmers to maintain their flocks indoors till June, together with natural chickens which might be required to have outside entry.
“We nonetheless have migration going for an additional couple of months. So we’ve obtained to be as vigilant as potential to guard our birds,” stated Invoice Mattos, president of the California Poultry Federation.
The lack of native hens led to a spike in egg costs within the San Francisco Bay Space over the vacations earlier than supermarkets and eating places discovered suppliers from outdoors the area.
Whereas hen flu has been round for many years, the present outbreak of the virus that started in early 2022 has prompted officers to slaughter almost 82 million birds, principally egg-laying chickens, in 47 U.S. states, based on the U.S. Division of Agriculture. Every time the illness is discovered the whole flock is slaughtered to assist restrict the unfold of the virus.
The worth of a dozen eggs greater than doubled to $4.82 at its peak in January 2023. Egg costs returned to their regular vary as egg producers constructed up their flocks and outbreaks have been managed. Turkey and rooster costs additionally spiked, partly as a result of virus.
“I feel that is an existential challenge for the business poultry business. The virus is on each continent, apart from Australia at this level,” stated Maurice Pitesky, a poultry skilled on the College of California, Davis.
Local weather change is rising the chance of outbreaks as altering climate patterns disrupt the migratory patterns of untamed birds, Pitesky stated. For instance, distinctive rainfall final yr created new waterfowl habitat all through California, together with areas near poultry farms.
In California, the outbreak has impacted greater than 7 million chickens in about 40 business flocks and 24 yard flocks, with a lot of the outbreaks occurring over the previous two months on the North Coast and Central Valley, based on the USDA.
Business officers are nervous in regards to the rising variety of yard chickens that might grow to be contaminated and unfold avian flu to business farms.
“We’ve got wild birds which might be are stuffed with virus. And in case you expose your birds to those wild birds, they may get contaminated and ailing,” stated Rodrigo Gallardo, a UC Davis researcher who research avian influenza.
Gallardo advises the house owners of yard chickens to put on clear garments and sneakers to guard their flocks from getting contaminated. If an uncommon variety of chickens die, they need to be examined for avian flu.
Ettamarie Peterson, a retired instructor in Petaluma, has a flock of about 50 chickens that produce eggs she sells from her yard barn for 50 cents every.
“I’m very involved as a result of this avian flu is transmitted by wild birds, and there’s no means I can cease the wild birds from coming by way of and leaving the illness behind,” Peterson stated. “In case your flock has any circumstances of it, it’s important to destroy the entire flock.”
Dawn Farms, which was began by Weber’s great-grandparents greater than a century in the past, was contaminated regardless of putting in strict biosecurity measures to guard the flock.
“The virus obtained to the birds so dangerous and so shortly you walked in and the birds have been simply useless,” Weber stated. “Heartbreaking doesn’t describe how you are feeling if you stroll in and completely wholesome younger birds have been simply laid out.”
After euthanizing greater than half one million chickens at Dawn Farms, Weber and his workers spent the Christmas vacation discarding the carcasses. Since then, they’ve been cleansing out and disinfecting the hen homes.
Weber hopes the farm will get approval from federal regulators to convey chicks again to the farm this spring. Then it might take one other 5 months earlier than the hens are mature sufficient to put eggs.
He feels fortunate that two farms his firm co-owns haven’t been contaminated and are nonetheless producing eggs for his clients. However recovering from the outbreak gained’t be straightforward.
“We’ve got a protracted highway forward,” Weber stated. “We’re going to make one other run of it and attempt to preserve this household of workers collectively as a result of they’ve labored so exhausting to construct this into the corporate that it’s.”
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