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US chicken, egg companies heighten security after bird flu case

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http://www.foxnews.com/health/2017/03/07/us-chicken-egg-companies-heighten-security-after-bird-flu-case.html

March 07, 2017

Reuters
Fog shrouds the Tyson slaughterhouse in Burbank, Washington

Fog shrouds the Tyson slaughterhouse in Burbank, Washington  (Reuters)

CHICAGO –  Top U.S. chicken and egg companies ramped up procedures to protect birds from avian flu on Monday, a day after the federal government confirmed the nation’s first case of the virus at a commercial operation in more than a year.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Sunday that a farm in southern Tennessee that is a supplier to Tyson Foods Inc had been infected with the virus. All 73,500 birds there were killed by the disease, known as avian influenza (AI), or have since been suffocated with foam to prevent its spread.

The outbreak raised concerns among chicken companies because the infected farm is located near biggest-producing states for chicken meat, including Georgia and Alabama.

The spread of bird flu would represent a financial blow for operators because it would kill birds or require flocks to be culled, and it would trigger more import bans from other countries. Health officials said the risk of avian influenza spreading to people or making food unsafe was extremely remote.

More on this…

  • Bird flu found in Tennessee chicken flock on Tyson-contracted farm

The worst-ever U.S. outbreak of avian flu in 2014 and 2015 killed about 50 million birds, most of which were egg-laying hens in Iowa, but left the southeastern United States largely unscathed.

Already, U.S. trading partners, including South Korea and Japan, have restricted shipments of U.S. poultry because of the infection in Tennessee.

Pilgrim’s Pride Corp, the world’s second-largest chicken producer, said it “immediately activated AI response plans and heightened on-farm biosecurity programs at all Pilgrim’s facilities” in response to the case.

Sanderson Farms Inc, the third-largest U.S. poultry producer, cracked down on the movement of people and vehicles into its facilities, said Mike Cockrell, chief financial officer.

“Our whole industry from coast to coast has been put on a heightened biosecurity alert,” said James Sumner, president of the USA Poultry and Egg Export Council.

Tyson shares on Monday closed down 2.5 percent, while Sanderson Farms shares lost 2 percent and Pilgrim’s Pride shares dropped 1.2 percent.

‘BROILER BELT’ CONCERNS

The infected farm housed roosters and hens that produced fertilized eggs, which hatch into the “broiler” chickens raised for meat. Often, such facilities have even higher security measures than farms raising birds for slaughter because the breeding animals are more valuable.

“The thing that’s worrisome is that it’s in the broiler belt,” said John Glisson, vice president of research for the U.S. Poultry and Egg Association. “There are so many birds in this part of the world.”

Just in Alabama, across the border from the infected farm, producers raised more than 1 billion broiler chickens in 2015.

Portions of Alabama are within a zone surrounding the infected farm in which chickens are being tested for avian flu. Tyson collected samples from an Alabama farm in the zone, and they tested negative for the virus, according to the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries.

Tyson asked government officials to expand the zone around the farm to 10 miles from 6.2 miles “to ensure all their commercial operations in the region were disease free,” said Donna Karlsons, U.S. Department of Agriculture spokeswoman. The company manages all the commercial facilities in the region, she said.

Tyson had no immediate comment. On Sunday, the company said it was working with state and federal officials to contain the virus.

Of eight chicken houses on the farm in Tennessee, one became infected, said Tom Super, spokesman for the National Chicken Council, an industry group. That indicates “the farmer obviously was practicing pretty good biosecurity,” he said.

The farmer will bury the remains of the dead chickens on his property, said Glisson.

Wild birds, such as ducks, can carry avian flu without showing symptoms of it and spread it to commercial farms through feces or feathers.

In recent months, different strains of the virus have been confirmed in birds across the northern hemisphere, leading authorities worldwide to cull millions of animals. Several people have died in an outbreak of avian flu in China.

The strain that struck the Tennessee had a North American wild bird lineage, according to the USDA.

The USDA said it did not know how the farm in Tennessee became infected or the strain involved.

“We have been reading of the spread of bird flu in Asia and Europe, and now to be confirmed here in the U.S. is of serious concern,” said Ken Klippen, president of the National Association of Egg Farmers.

Rose Acre Farms, the second-largest U.S. egg producer, raised its risk level to “tightest you can get” after the Tennessee case was detected, Chief Executive Marcus Rust said. Trucks must wait 72 hours to enter the company’s property if they come from an area with avian flu, up from 24 hours, he said.

Avian flu found in duck in Alaska on major bird migratory route

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http://www.worldtechtoday.com/2016/08/29/33654/avian-flu-found-in-duck-in-alaska-on-major-bird-migratory-route.html

AUG 29, 2016 BY  Balen

Avian flu found in duck in Alaska on major bird migratory route

The H5N2 strain of bird flu was discovered in a wild mallard duck in Fairbanks, the first time the disease, which killed 50 million chickens and turkeys in the U.S. last year, has been found in the country in nearly 14 months

The H5N2 strain of Avian flu has been found in a wild mallard duck in Fairbanks, Alaska, the first time the virus has appeared in the U.S. in 14 months. The discovery is significant, as Alaska lies directly on the migratory routes of birds that are headed to the lower parts of North America an Asia, making it a key location for introducing avian diseases from other locations. The virus has not been found in any wild birds in the U.S. since last June, when 50 million domestic birds died from the disease.

During the outbreak last year, millions of dollars were lost, as export partners suspended trade with countries and states with infected birds. Egg prices increased to record highs and there were turkey meat shortages. Last summer’s outbreak of avian flu was attributed to the droppings of wild ducks and geese flying across the country. Entire flocks of chickens and turkeys died after being infected.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has issued recommendations for farmers and poultry companies to increase their adherence to protocols for cleanliness and security, to try and ensure the health of their birds.

More: http://www.worldtechtoday.com/2016/08/29/33654/avian-flu-found-in-duck-in-alaska-on-major-bird-migratory-route.html

Wild duck tests positive for bird flu

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http://www.mycolumbiabasin.com/2015/12/09/wild-duck-tests-positive-for-bird-flu/

December 9, 2015 7:30 am

duckWASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has tested more than 24,000 birds across the nation through the fall, and only one tested positive for Eurasian avian influenza, in a wild duck killed in Morrow County.

In a prepared release, APHIS states that the bird tested positive for H5 influenza, but states it could not determine the exact strain of the viruses or if they are highly pathogenic. The mallard duck was killed by a hunter in November. Because the service could not determine the strain, it does not know if the flu is capable of infecting domestic poultry.

APHIS plans on testing a total of 40,000 wild birds through July 1, 2016. Samples are being collected from both hunter-harvested birds and from wild birds that are found dead for other reasons.

Factory Chicken Farming: An ‘unsustainable system’

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From: http://www.theguardian.com/vital-signs/2015/jul/14/bird-flu-devastation-highlights-unsustainability-of-commercial-chicken-farming

An ‘unsustainable system’

This is likely, at least in part, because sunshine and warm backyard temperatures are effective at killing the virus, says Dr Michael Greger, director of public health and animal agriculture for the Humane Society of the United States.

Commercial poultry farms, on the other hand, “are designed like a disease incubator”, thanks to dark, moist and crowded conditions.

While factory poultry are more isolated, “when infected, [factory-farmed birds] are subject to wildfire-like outbreaks”, says Michael Davis, author of The Monster at Our Door: The Global Threat of Avian Flu.

On top of that, the genetic makeup of birds found in factory farms is often less diverse than those raised in backyard flocks. Due to the industry’s reliance on homogenous breeding techniques, commercially raised broilers are all pretty much genetically identical. Broilers and turkeys are artificially selected and bred to produce birds that grow quickly – at a rate 300% faster than those birds raised in 1960, according to the ASPCA – and produce as much breast protein as possible, to the point where the birds have a hard time standing upright.

Not only do commercial flocks share a limited gene pool, but some studies have suggested the industry’s vise-like focus on breast meat, in the case of broilers and turkeys, and eggs, in the case of hens, suppresses the birds’ immune systems, a theory known as resource allocation.

When a bird is bred so that all its energy goes to the production of meat or eggs, “something has to give”, says the ASPCA’s McMillan. “The science indicates that a bird’s immunity goes down.”

As Greger puts it: “There is an inverse relationship between accelerated growth and disease resistance, which means faster-growing birds are more susceptible to illness.”

While the USDA terms this outbreak “a wake-up call on biosecurity”, the idea of hermetically sealing farms, which use ventilation fans to keep birds cool, may be too difficult to enforce. “The industrial poultry system, by its very nature, is vulnerable to these kinds of infections,” he says.

It’s the system that is at fault, according to McMillan. “We are forcing birds to live in unbalanced ways, both physically and genetically,”she says. Commercial poultry flocks “are bred to suffer. We force them to live a life of misery, and from that perspective, they are going to be more prone to contracting and spreading disease. These are not healthy, balanced animals.”

Bird flu could possibly affect humans

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http://www.abc17news.com/news/cdc-bird-flu-could-possibly-affect-humans/33427576

This week the CDC released a report expressing concerns about the H2N5 strain of avian flu possibly affecting humans.

For months the CDC has said it is not contagious to humans.

Dr. Dan Shaw at Mizzou’s Veterinary School said if someone were to contact H2N5 it would have to be inhaled.

He said this is dangerous because not only are poultry farms experiencing a mass infection of the virus, but people who handle waterfowl could possibly be at risk, as well.

“As far as human safety, waterfowl can get infected with the virus and they don’t tend to get that sick with it.  So, they could be a source of infection and when the fall migration comes back down the Central and Mississippi it is causing some concern,” said Shaw.

More:

http://www.abc17news.com/news/cdc-bird-flu-could-possibly-affect-humans/33427576

Shaw said hunters in Missouri should be concerned if they hunt geese or ducks.

He said people who handle the birds are at the highest risk for getting the virus, if it should mutate, which the CDC now says is a possibility.

“That would definitely be a way to get exposed to it and all the poultry companies advise their workers to give up waterfowl hunting or find a new job because they are so worried about the source,” said Shaw.

USDA: Bird flu vaccine not good enough for outbreak

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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A bird flu vaccine doesn’t work well enough to approve it for emergency use against the current outbreak that’s shaken the Midwest poultry industry, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Wednesday.

The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said in a statement Wednesday that the current vaccine is not well matched against the highly pathogenic H5N2 virus and doesn’t provide enough protection.

“The vaccine currently available offers just 60 percent effectiveness in chickens, leaving 4 in 10 birds unprotected. The vaccine’s effectiveness in turkeys is still being studied,” it said.

This undated handout image provided by Science and the University of Tokyo shows infectious particles of the avian H7N9 virus emerging from a cell. Scientists who sparked an outcry by creating easier-to-spread versions of the bird flu want to try such experiments again using a worrisome new strain. Since it broke out in China in March, the H7N9 bird flu has infected more than 130 people and killed 43. Leading flu researchers say that genetically engineering this virus in the lab could help track whether it’s changing in the wild to become a bigger threat. They announced the pending plans Wednesday in letters to the journals Science and Nature. (AP Photo/Takeshi Noda/University of Tokyo, Science)

By the USDA’s count, bird flu has cost chicken and turkey producers more than 45 million birds since early March, mostly in Iowa and Minnesota.

The USDA said it will continue to support efforts to develop more effective vaccines, and will re-evaluate its decision as those become ready for use. The agency said it will carefully consider both the efficacy of any new vaccine and the potential foreign trade losses.

A major concern is that several significant U.S. trade partners have told the USDA they might ban all imports of U.S. poultry and eggs, which could cost producers billions of dollars in lost exports. The reason other countries might balk is that tests for the disease in poultry products look for the same antibodies that vaccines trigger an animal to produce.

If a vaccine is ultimately approved, the USDA said it would be targeted to the states and poultry sectors where it could be most effective – where quarantines, culling infected flocks and enhanced biosecurity can’t stop the spread.

Indiana trains prisoners in bird flu fight

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http://www.jamestownsun.com/news/nation-and-world/3756574-indiana-trains-prisoners-bird-flu-fight

By Reuters Media on May 31, 2015 at 4:58 p.m.

Indiana is training 300 prisoners to kill infected chickens and banning bird shows at county fairs. Mississippi is considering road barricades and planning biosecurity measures. Iowa is trying to figure out how to deal with a mountain of dead – and reeking – chickens.

Federal health experts are hopeful that the virulent bird flu that has devastated Midwestern poultry farms in recent months has reached its peak and will taper off as the weather warms. But worried state officials aren’t taking chances.

Fears that the virus, which has led to the deaths of nearly 45 million birds in 16 states and Canada, could come roaring back in the fall, when temperatures cool, have agriculture officials across the U.S. preparing for the worst.

Even states that haven’t been hit yet are taking no chances.

“We’re better safe than sorry,” said Dr. Robert Cobb, state veterinarian for Georgia, the nation’s leading producer of chickens raised for meat, which has not had any cases so far. “All the research I’ve been able to find is showing that this virus could likely stick around for years.”

GEARING UP

After a backyard flock in northeastern Indiana tested positive in early May – the state’s first case of the virus – Indiana’s State Board of Animal Health banned all bird shows at county fairs this summer, following similar moves in Iowa, Minnesota and Pennsylvania.

The board and other state agencies also began planning what they would need in the event of a wider outbreak, including portable toilets and protective gear for personnel.

And they asked the Department of Corrections to begin training non-violent offenders to help with any culls needed.

In late May, the first group of 50 inmates were fit-tested for respirators, and began training on how to safely remove chickens from cages and transfer them to an enclosed cart used to asphyxiate the birds.

Denise Derrer, spokeswoman for the state board of animal health, said crews of low-level offenders have also helped with state recovery efforts after floods and tornadoes and will be used in the event of a wider outbreak.

Spread of Avian Flu Raises Concerns About Human Pandemic

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http://www.cnbc.com/id/102715155

Avian flu spread raises some concerns about human infection

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At least for now, chickens, turkeys and other fowl are the only direct targets of the avian flu outbreak that has spread across the U.S. Yet scientists say there is a subtype of the virus that may have the potential to become a human pandemic.

The outbreak, which the U.S. Department of Agriculture says has affected 20 states, has resulted in the destruction of at least 6 million chickens and turkeys and has put upward pressure on poultry prices. It has also triggered fears that much worse could be in store.

Daniel Janies, professor of bioinformatics and genomics at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte who co-authored a paper this year on the spread of an avian influenza, admits it’s “hard to say” whether the flu could make the jump from contained to catastrophe. Still, according to his research, bird flu has the potential to be “highly pathogenic and periodically infect humans.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that human infection, though rare, has been known to happen when people come into contact with an infected bird. Most recently, the H7N9 variant of bird flu infected some people in China, according to the CDC.

“Our work and that of others suggest that H7N9 has pandemic potential,” saids Janies, who is also a research associate in the invertebrate zoology department at the American Museum of Natural History, “but we have not seen human to human transmission yet.”

Read MoreAvian flu in Midwest hits egg prices, may hit harder

Bill Gates gets worried

Flu pandemics, which are based on how a disease spreads rather than its death toll, have only occurred four times since the beginning of the 20th century, kicked off by the Spanish flu of 1918 that killed about 50 million people. The most recent was swine flu, which “quickly spread across the United States and around the world” in the spring of 2009, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

This new avian flu subtype, first reported in China in the spring of 2013, hits the human body hard. Federal officials say that many patients experience “severe respiratory illness, with about one-third resulting in a death.” The strain still seems to be outside of the United States, but in January it reached Canada from two people who had been in China.

As of March, more than 640 human cases and 224 deaths from H7N9 flu have been reported globally.

Epidemiologists have been worrying about a global pandemic for years. Just this week, philanthropist and billionaire Bill Gates—whose foundation is involved in disease prevention in developing economies—told Vox he was worried about the potential for a global disease outbreak, although he acknowledged that the probability is “very low.”

In a normal season, human influenza can kill at least 10,000 and result in the hospitalization of more than 200,000 others in the U.S. each year, according to the CDC. That translates into an economic cost of $14.9 billion in direct medical costs and lost productivity each year. Some estimate this is just a fraction of the damage a severe flu pandemic could create. One study by the CDC puts the economic impact as high as $166.5 billion.

Read MoreThe cost of halting a pandemic? $344 billion: Study

A recent study in mBio looked at the H5N1 avian flu’s spread in Egypt, and whether it has the potential to become airborne. It found that the virus there “could rapidly adapt to growth in the human airway microenvironment,” but emphasized that such a mutation was not one that “enhanced viral airborne transmission between humans.”

In other words, explained Janies, the H5N1 in Egypt is not adapting to become transmitted between humans. Rather, the bug is doing “a better job of deepening the infection” in humans.

However, the question remains whether scientific inquiry and technology can keep pace with mutating viruses. That area at least offers modest comfort, according to Janies.

“We are much better equipped to see, via genetic sequencers, and communicate, via data sharing over the Internet, on viral spread than in the past,” he said.

 

Bird Flu Disposal Fun

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http://www.kcci.com/news/des-moines-pitches-in-with-bird-flu-disposal-efforts/33116758

DES MOINES, Iowa —The city of Des Moines is pitching in to help with the bird flu cleanup.

The Des Moines Public Works has property that can hold a sprawling 10 acres of dumping ground for the city’s unwanted trees.

But instead of the city paying to have the massive pile of mulch hauled off to a landfill, truckers are traveling to Des Moines to pick it up and deliver the wood waste to communities in northwest Iowa fighting the bird flu.

Massive mounds of mulch are stacking up and private contractors are hauling it off.

When one bed is full, the next truck is waiting to move in.

Matt Ohlson covered more than 800 miles alone on Tuesday transporting Des Moines’ dumped wood to Iowa counties hit by the bird flu.

“It’s good for me because I get the steady haul-in. And it’s great for the city because they get an easy way out,” Ohlson said.

Iowa has 60 confirmed cases of the avian flu. The number of chickens dead or dying is about 26 million.

The city of Des Moines is donating 2,000 cubic yards of wood waste used to help poultry farms dispose of birds infected with the disease.

Public Works is saving $50,000 by cutting out its landfill costs.

“We’ve got a great win-win situation [the only losers so far? The birds.]

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A huge US food distributor says bird flu could hurt egg supply for the next year

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by Anjali Athavaley, Reuters

  • May 15, 2015, 11:40 PM

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Food distributor Sysco said on Friday that a record U.S. outbreak of avian flu would limit its supply of eggs and chickens that lay them for nine to 18 months, based on information provided to the company by its suppliers.

Sysco is the biggest U.S. food distributor, whose clients include restaurants, hotels and hospitals.

The company is discussing options with its customers, including creating alternative menu items during the period, a Sysco spokesman said in an email.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/r-exclusive-sysco-sees-us-bird-flu-hurting-egg-supply-up-to-18-months-2015-5#ixzz3aLNgLNBa