Avian Flu Cases Are Growing. What’s Pennsylvania’s Response?

Researchers and veterinarians are working to cull the spread of avian flu into the commonwealth as cases rise across the U.S.

In the last three months, nearly 14 million birds contracted avian flu in the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA APHIS). That number comes from their 2022-2023 Confirmations of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) in Commercial and Backyard Flocks.

While there are no reported cases, Gregory Martin, poultry educator for Penn State Extension, said the flu has likely made its way into the commonwealth.

“We assume that there are positive birds moving through the state at this time. And so we will, y’know, make sure our biosecurity is up and everyone’s using hand washing and doing a lot of different things to protect their flocks from getting sick,” said Martin.

WVIA News spoke with Martin on Dec. 4, a few days after Ohio, a neighboring state, reported the virus in a flock of 1.3 million birds. On Dec. 7, Ohio reported two additional infected flocks for a total of 4 million affected birds. Ohio is leading the country in active cases, as of Dec. 11.

The virus is lethal, said Martin. If one bird falls ill, usually the whole flock has to be put down.

“I’ve actually been on farms that, y’know, the birds look fine the day before – and were deathly ill the next day. And they were so fevered, they were hot to touch. They were really fevered. So, this is a very virulent disease for poultry. And so, you don’t really want to see them suffering…it’s like pneumonia in people,” said Martin.

Martin reiterated that humans cannot contract the virus from eating infected poultry.

“It’s illegal, for example, to put a sick bird on a truck and take it into the processing plant. There’s inspections done of the trailers before they even go into the plant. And then everything is inspected. Anything that looks suspicious is pulled out,” said Martin. “And so, yeah, even with all that, cooking would render anything in the bird harmless.”

Source: wvia.org
Photo Credit: gettyimages-suriyasilsaksom