Dustan Clark of the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture’s Cooperative Extension Service
Sometimes the first sign of disease in a poultry flock is a dead bird.
Certain diseases — like bird flu — can lead to an exponential number of bird deaths over time, with few other signs until the birds can be tested.
In the same vein, a variety of other bird illnesses can cut through a flock rapidly without proper precautions and response plans.
Preventing the spread of the disease sometimes comes down to the basics of biosecurity, the concept of ensuring the safety and well-being of a flock by curbing the disease’s introduction in the first place.
Biosecurity Basics
One of the state’s key educators on biosecurity is Dr. Dustan Clark, poultry veterinarian for the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture’s Cooperative Extension Service and associate director of the Center of Excellence for Poultry Science in Fayetteville.
“Poultry has some of the best biosecurity practices in place, and so every company has those in place for their own growers. What we’ve been concentrating our efforts on is getting information out to those who have small flocks, hobby flocks, things like that,” Clark said.
Clark and the Extension Service have hosted a series of workshops in recent weeks to promote good biosecurity practices. He said a growing interest nationwide in hobby flocks has also been true in Arkansas, and that requires more legwork to get information on best practices to growers.
Most of the information distributed by the extension is translated into several languages, including Spanish, Laotian and Hmong, to educate as many poultry owners as possible, he said.
Clark said smaller scale flocks sometimes don’t use certain common industry standards that prevent the introduction of disease. One of those methods, known as “all in, all out,” keeps a group of birds together when they first enter the farm and again when they leave for market.
Clark said a hobby flock owner might buy one chicken at a time or otherwise keep changing the makeup of his flock, which can lead to disease.
Other biosecurity basics that Clark promotes include washing and sanitizing clothes and vehicles and not handling birds immediately after visiting another farm.
A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture said the department “continues to emphasize the importance of biosecurity around poultry” and that federal officials have created a fact sheet for veterinarians to use in the field. The department has also developed its own outreach campaign for backyard poultry growers.
Latest Outbreak
The state released the “control area” around a 10-kilometer zone in Boone County last week following the most recent case of bird flu in the state.
The USDA’s Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service confirmed on March 10 that the H5N2 avian influenza was found in a turkey flock there. That strain is considered “highly pathogenic,” which means the disease travels faster in flocks and can affect more birds.
Dr. Brandon Doss, assistant state veterinarian, who oversaw the response to the bird flu along with state veterinarian Dr. George Pat Badley, said it was the first case of bird flu in the state since 2013 and only the third since 2008. But both of the previous cases in recent years were low pathogenic, he said.
The state responded by locking down the area, preventing the movement of poultry in or out of the area. The Extension Service worked alongside the Arkansas Livestock & Poultry Commission, the Arkansas Geographic Information Office, the USDA and the Arkansas Department of Health in the response.
Surveys were also performed to locate birds in the area, including hobby flocks, and perform any needed testing. The response team visited more than 1,600 locations and identified 41 commercial farms.
But another figure stood out in the survey — 177 “backyard flocks” were also identified, Doss said.
“This particular response had the highest number of backyard flocks that we have had so far,” Doss said.
Industry Response
Any case of bird flu, whether it originates from a commercial flock or a hobby farmer, triggers a response from state and federal officials.
But the commercial poultry industry is tasked with creating its own preventive biosecurity measures, which are developed with recommendations from industry associations, a spokesman for the USDA said.
Spokesmen for the National Chicken Council and the National Turkey Federation referred to a joint statement their organizations released following a string of recent bird flu cases.
“In light of the recent detections of avian influenza in the United States, the U.S. poultry industry would like to assure the public that detailed response plans are in place for controlling the spread of the virus and for eliminating the virus entirely,” the groups said. “The U.S. government and poultry industries have sophisticated systems and techniques to detect the introduction of the virus into a commercial poultry flock and have proven methods to quickly eliminate the virus. The U.S. poultry industry has a strong avian influenza testing and detection program administered by the federal National Poultry Improvement Plan, in addition to each state’s individual response plan. Poultry farmers also maintain strict biosecurity measures year-round, keep their flocks protected from wild birds and routinely test flocks for avian influenza.”
The groups also said that affected flocks are quarantined.
“Both H5N2 and H5N8 viruses have been found in other parts of the world and have not caused any human infection to date. As a reminder though, the proper handling and cooking of poultry to an internal temperature of 165ÃF kills bacteria and viruses,” the group said.
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