Spring migration of wild birds increases the risk and geographical spread of avian influenza to commercial poultry in New York more than any other time of year, experts said.
According to the USDA, there have been 58.65 million birds killed by HPAI since February 2022 – 10,222 of the birds from outbreaks in New York with the most recent outbreak resulting in the deaths of 6,600 birds.
“It is transferred to local birds by migration,” said Casey Koehle, owner of Landry Farms in Kirkville. “They’re leaving for the South or they’re coming back and they’re picking up diseases along the way.”
Since Landry Farms raises 300 laying hens, and meat chickens, Koehle said they take precautions to prevent the birds from coming in contact with water or droppings contaminated by wild birds.
“When you have birds that are in that type of environment such as ours, you need to be sure they’re not near waterways and they have access to fresh drinking water at all times,” Koehle said.
In addition to keeping their birds in a hoophouse under cover, they use a freshwater system and they have four dogs that patrol to protect their birds from encountering wild birds.
“We have areas that are so close to us that these birds are flying to such as the swamp over here in Kirkville as well as the Montezuma Wildlife Sanctuary,” Koehle said.
Wildlife biologist at Montezuma Wildlife Refuge, Linda Ziemba, said they found avian influenza among the birds visiting the park first in September and then again in December.
“Volunteers count all of the waterbirds that they can see within the unit by species and as they’re doing that, they keep an eye out for dead birds and for any birds that look like they’re sick based on their behavior,” Ziemba said.
The biggest thing for prevention is monitoring the waterfowl on the refuge, Ziemba said, but she is less worried this year than she was last spring.
“We know it’s in wild bird populations. It’s well documented at this point and at least here, we haven’t seen a big die-off so I’m less worried than I was,” she said.
Even though Ziemba is not as concerned this spring, there are plans in place in the event they do see a large waterfowl die-off.
Supply chain issues
With millions of birds dying in large commercial flocks, small farmers are having a hard time getting birds from hatcheries, Koehle said.
“All these corporations lost so much of their flocks, that the hatcheries that everybody gets them from they’ve consumed all of them and now you’re on a waiting list, if they’re even available,” Koehle said.
Elizabeth Wolters, the deputy commissioner for the New York Department of Agriculture and Markets said the department is working closely with the DEC and USDA to monitor HPAI in New York.
“The United States has the strongest avian influenza surveillance program in the world, we actively look for the disease and provide fair market compensation to affected producers,” Wolters said.
Many factors including high feed prices, availability of poulets and general inflation pressures are impacting the poultry market, Wolters said.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have control over those market pressures and price constraints, but we really just encourage our farmers to use safe practices and we are seeing a multitude of impacts in the poultry industry on prices right now including avian influenza,” Wolters said.
When HPAI hits
Joy Bennett, state veterinarian and director of the division of animal industry at the Department of Agriculture and Markets, said waterfowl pose the biggest risk to domestic poultry during the spring migration. Cornell estimates that so far 4,453,800 birds have traveled through New York since March 1.
Source: spectrumlocalnews.com
Photo Credit: pexels-joal-zar
Categories: New York, Livestock, Poultry