Highly pathogenic avian influenza (bird flu) has affected more than 1,600 flocks nationwide, including 652 non-commercial backyard flocks (40%), 783 large-scale operations (47%) and 177 small-scale/commercial flocks. Bird flu has killed more than 166 million birds.
Food Animal Concerns Trust (FACT) recently hosted “Pasture Poultry & Bird Flu: How to Avoid It & What to Expect If You Get It,” a webinar featuring Mike Badger with American Pastured Poultry Producers Association (APPPA); Marty Thomas, a software developer and farmer; and Dr. Tyler McAlphin, a veterinarian with USDA-APHIS.
McAlphin said that halting the spread of bird flu relies heavily on biosecurity principles.
“For pastured poultry, it will be tough as you’re outside,” he noted. “You’re trying to reduce the risk of disease spread, watching the movement of personnel and equipment and routine animal care.”
He encouraged farmers to develop a biosecurity plan and enforce it. This should include separating well and sick animals and cleaning and disinfecting things coming on and off the property.
“Develop a checklist which will help you identify how you protect your flock,” he said.
Limiting vehicles entering the property can help reduce spreading infection, along with using dedicated clothing such as coveralls and shoes.
“We don’t want to track things back and forth in the area,” McAlphin said. “If you have folks who work for you, keep track of who they are and where they’re coming from.” For example, some farms hire only workers that do not own birds of any kind.
Cleanliness is key too. “Is food cleaned up?” McAlphin said. “Is it where it’s not likely to come in contact with wild animals? Is the food where birds are flying over, where the virus is coming from? There’s potential for droppings. If you don’t clean and disinfect your shoes, there’s potential for virus to go in there.”
Badger said it’s all about risk and management. He tells any producer that any birds infected will die and the producer will lose income for about a year. In a typical pastured poultry scenario, where the pullets, layers and chicks are separated by shelters on the farm, if one group is confirmed as sick and should be culled, the others will also get sick.
“They’re not even tested; they’re lost,” Badger said. “The risk is for all the birds on the farm.”
Farmers who need to replace birds may not get them when they want, since orders placed later than January for pullets may not be filled.
“When it comes to some of this price pressure, the supermarket prices are basically a reaction to what’s happening with the commercial egg market,” Badger said. “It’s quite unstable. We have had several outbreaks in the past 10 years but the pastured local markets are quite stable.”
Bird flu has affected at least 1,600 flocks nationwide. Photo by Deborah J. Sergeant
Some customers may resort to a grocery store because farm prices are the same or maybe a little cheaper. But Badger warned that puts more pressure on local flocks. And those who build up their production may feel deserted later if customers go back to grocery store eggs once bird flu subsides and prices go down.
Badger said that according to USDA records, 1% or less of total birds affected are non-commercial flocks, meaning “backyard birds” are not the source of the virus’s spread. But pastured flocks have been confirmed positive with bird flu.
“The risk is really real to the pastured producer,” Badger said. “You can’t avoid it. If you have poultry, you’re at risk. What will you do about it? … We’re bucking the trend in the way we approach things. We start with the health of the birds. We want biosecurity. Most of the conventional methods start with biosecurity.”
But he conceded that biosecurity is not the only answer. He also recommended keeping birds healthy and using the best quality feed without fillers.
“Exposure to sunlight is vital,” Badger added. “Historically, this virus is susceptible to UV light. Get the birds rotating on pasture. Movement is the central driving force of the pastured model. I feel the birds are most susceptible in winter housing. When you are on pasture, be moving … Limit access to certain places. Don’t water your birds on standing ponds.
“Double down on the really good things that got you here. Be alert and cautious about changes in flock behavior. As soon as you recognize an illness in the pullet flock, that flock gets special treatment.”
Thomas said that his farm in Illinois lost all of its 3,000 birds in January to bird flu. But he didn’t see it coming.
“It was really bitterly cold out that day, -10º,” he said. “We lost 30 of the 3,000, which was unusual, but it was so cold out. The next day, a couple hundred were dead. We called the vet. He didn’t think it was bird flu. There were absolutely no symptoms.”
Unfortunately, his vet wasn’t aware that this strain of bird flu can be asymptomatic. Thomas noticed that a separate flock a few hundred feet away appeared healthy. To increase the chances of survival for his sickly flock, he increased heat and improved any aspects of management that he felt would help the birds. But day by day, a few hundred more died – a sickening greeting each time he checked on the flock.
“We kept thinking it was the environment, not the bird flu,” he said. “On Sunday, we had 30 dead. By Thursday, the other coop started dying. That’s when we called USDA to do tests. It was confirmed on Friday and they came out Saturday to cull the remaining 500 birds.”
He felt shocked that birds could turn from healthy to dead within mere hours, without a drop in production until death. Thomas and his workers could do nothing for the birds that contracted the flu. He kept seeing dead birds in nesting boxes with their heads off to the side, a sight he had never seen before.
Hindsight is 20/20, as the saying goes. Thomas realizes now that he “should have taken precautions when going from the home flock to the farm flock. I should have been cleaning my boots,” he said. “I used a skid steer to drop off the feed. I wasn’t thinking of biosecurity. Our best guess is that there were wild birds in with the chickens sharing feed. We didn’t have the infrastructure to bring the feed indoors. In years past, nothing happened. That’s our best guess as for what happened.”
Thomas received $6 per USDA-culled birds, but nothing for the 2,500 birds that USDA didn’t cull. That’s why he tells producers that if they think it’s happening, decide quickly whether they should contact USDA or they won’t receive compensation – “not that it makes a dent in the $100,000 loss in revenue for us.”
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