Avian flu. I've been ignoring it for months, but this week I've finally worked myself into a full-blown panic over it. All I see on TV are images of workers in full biohazard suits posing with limp-necked birds as some big-haired woman with too-white teeth rattles off how many thousands of birds were culled this week in Malaysia or India or Nigeria. The World Health Organization says, "at least some migratory waterfowl are now carrying the H5N1 virus in its highly pathogenic form…and introducing the virus to poultry flocks in areas that lie along their migratory routes." Uh, has anybody but me noticed how many birds migrate over New Mexico? LOTS! I became convinced that all of our chickens, and then all of us, were going to die from H5N1.
Coincidentally, this week the New Mexico Department of Health is scheduled to release a plan for how to prevent and combat an outbreak of avian flu in the state. I spoke with New Mexico's State Epidemiologist Dr. C Mac Sewell, who tried to quell my fears. "People need to realize that the big poultry operations are much different here than in other countries where they're just out in the open," he says, referring to Southeast Asian poultry farms that have had to cull thousands of birds. In the United States, he says, there shouldn't be any of that mixing between wild and domesticated species.
But they could be mixing here! New Mexico doesn't have too many (if any) giant poultry producers, but we have lots of little ones. Most poultry farms here are small, more than a handful are organic, and many families, even some in cities, have a few chickens, ducks or geese in the back yard. Lots of these birds are raised outside, not in big barns.
And what about native ducks? Dr. Sewell cautions that people who hunt ducks and geese might also have to take some extra precautions in light of the bird flu. Hunters are now being warned to wear rubber gloves when handling birds and wash their hands and equipment thoroughly. Wild birds should be cooked through, too, because there is some risk of transmission by raw meat. Well-done duck? This sucks!
The Department of Health and Dr. Sewell have been working with the state livestock board, the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, the US Department of the Interior and other agencies to establish an avian influenza surveillance program in New Mexico. Hopefully, if the bird flu gets here we'll find out pretty quickly. No sightings yet, phew!
Even Los Alamos National Labs is helping out. LANL's Influenza Sequence Database is chock full of flu virus DNA sequences. Why? According to Dr. Babetta Marrone, of the Molecular Microbiology and Immunology Group at LANL, "There is a natural relationship between diseases that affect public health and diseases that might be intentionally produced for bioterrorism." What? I'm panicking again!
I decided to call Johnny McMullin, the manager of Embudo Valley Organics, and gauge his level of alert. McMullin raises about 1,500 turkeys per year organically, and I asked him if he were worried about bird flu. He was quick to point out that the nature of organic poultry production means his birds are naturally healthy. "We're an organic farm," he said, "and we don't crowd our birds into houses that breed disease and weaken their immune systems…Their pens are outdoors and we move them around, so they don't live and eat and sleep in the same spot."
Bird flu is passed through birds' saliva, nasal secretions and poop, so any kind of close confinement makes infection spread faster. Experts say that crowded conditions increase the risk and rate of infection-but even with great conditions, the risk is difficult, if not impossible to eliminate.
McMullin hadn't even considered the threat of migratory birds. He said that the government sent him a packet about bird flu last week, but he's been so busy he hasn't had a chance to look at it yet. "If wild birds became infected," he said thinking it over, "then that would be a concern, yes. Our paddocks are open and wild birds would be able to fly right in." I had a feeling that McMullin would give that packet a second thought after we got off the phone.
After a recent visit from the state veterinarian, McMullin said he felt reassured that his birds were at very low risk. But this farm, like most others, has recently implemented a few changes. To prevent cross-contamination between birds, he's stopped letting customers take bags of feed to their farms and return the bags to be refilled; dirt or poop on the bags could carry disease.
McMullin also bought incubators and embarked on a hatchery program. Because of diseases like bird flu and increases in federal regulations, prices for poults (baby turkeys) have tripled in the past five years. Raising his own birds will also reduce the risk of contamination by mail-order poults (virtually all poults are shipped by the US Mail.) For now, at least, the birds seem to be safe.
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