Influenza confirmed at poultry farm By Anne Adams • Staff Writer
MONTEREY - Highland County deputies were called to assist closing roads to a Brandywine, W.Va. farm last weekend. Four turkey houses were shut down after an infection of avian influenza was found in the flock.
Some 25,000 full-grown turkeys that would have been processed by the Virginia Turkey Growers Cooperative in Harrisonburg are being euthanized.
The flu strain is the same one that struck Virginia in 2002, which affected a couple of Doe Hill poultry operations here, and devastated some 200 farms in the region. This time, however, no Virginia farms appear to be affected by the outbreak.
West Virginia State Police and Pendleton law enforcement officials had to reroute traffic along Route 614 to Sugar Grove, W.Va. to prevent spread of the disease.
West Virginia Department of Agriculture communications officer Buddy Davidson said only one farm had been affected, and the source of the infection has not been found.
"We are very concerned about biosecurity," he told The Recorder Monday. "The road will be closed down until we get the birds depopulated and ready for composting."
The virus is the low-pathogenic H5N2 strain, not the more deadly H5N1 "avian flu" strain found in Asia.
For security reasons, Davidson said his agency is not identifying name of the poultry operation owners or the farm's precise location. Vehicular traffic is being detoured until the farm is completely decontaminated. Only local residents are being allowed into the area. Davidson said he did not know how long that would take, but would be at least another several days.
The birds must be killed and then composted on site. The loss, at about $4 per bird, will be approximately $100,000. All of that will be reimbursed to the owner through the department of agriculture, Davidson said. The farm has already been approved for indemnity so it can be compensated for the loss. To be eligible for reimbursement in such cases, growers must be signed onto the USDA's National Poultry Improvement Plan, and promise to have their flocks tested.
Highland sheriff Herb Lightner said Monday his deputies had been called in to assist several teams as coordinated by the Franklin, W.Va. director of emergency services and he expect that support to last through Wednesday this week.
The virus was detected during routine pre-slaughter surveillance by the company technicians at the Virginia Poultry Growers Cooperative, group formed in 2004 after Harrisonburg-area poultry operation Pilgrim's Pride closed down. "They pulled samples and sent them to a lab in Virginia," Davidson said. "They were send to National Veterinary Services lab for confirmation, which we received on Saturday. We immediately started moving on depopulation."
This particular strain of avian influenza is not a human pathogen. Humans can carry it on their person if they've handled the birds, but they cannot contract the disease. Properly cooked poultry, even if infected, is not harmful for people to ingest.
The logistics of decontamination are complicated, Davidson noted. Officials of the poultry growers cooperative are doing the work with the help of his agency. They are wearing Tyvec suits, hoods, gloves, and booties on their feet to prevent spreading the disease, and taking all cautions required. "We're making progress but it will still take a few more days," he said. "We need to get the birds taken care of, and then decontaminate the buildings. There are a number of hoops to jump through, but then (he) should be able to get some new birds in."
West Virginia commissioner of agriculture Gus Douglas has ordered a halt to any movement of poultry litter in five counties - Pendleton, Hardy, Grant, Hampshire, and Mineral, all in West Virginia. All poultry operations in the region are having to "crust out" their houses (taking out the top layer of litter) and no land applications for turkey litter are allowed. This will be in effect for 30 days.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is looking for the source of the virus, but Davidson says it has no leads yet. "Sometimes you never find out," he said. "You just do typical detective work."
Davidson noted avian influenza strains are common in flocks worldwide, but in the U.S., "we try to avoid any sort of disease in our food supply. (Flu strains) can lead to virus mutations, and therefore, we eradicate them … This is not the first time we've seen this in this region, and it can definitely spread."
The poultry growers cooperative, based in the Shenandoah Valley, has a processing plant in Hinton and a feed mill in Broadway, and is now the second largest locally owned employer in the Valley with 154 farmers in the cooperative and 600 employees. The co-op had raised more than $11 million to buy the former Pilgrim's Pride plant; growers had raised $2.5 million, and the group got an $8 million loan from USDA, $250,000 from the W.Va. Department of Agriculture, and $100,000 from Rockingham County. The plant processes more than 125,000 turkeys a week.
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