'Everybody's on edge': What bird flu outbreak means for county fairs, flock owners
The Illinois poultry industry so far has been spared from a bird flu outbreak rippling through flocks around the Midwest.
There have been no infections reported among commercial flocks, but poultry owners are "still on edge," State Veterinarian Mark Ernst said.
"They're not ready to say we've dodged the bullet," he said.
The Illinois Department of Agriculture repeatedly has urged flock owners to tighten biosecurity measures to prevent exposure to infected wild birds and their droppings. But the virus has managed to creep into even "total confinement operations" in neighboring states, Ernst said.
Iowa and Minnesota - top producers of chickens and turkeys - have been particularly hard hit.
"We have fewer commercial operations than some of our neighboring states. That might be a factor," Ernst said. "And you hate to say it, but maybe we've just been fortunate and gotten lucky."
Earlier this month, the state temporarily banned the sale or exhibition of poultry and poultry products at county fairs, swap meets, and flea and auction markets to prevent the spread of bird flu. At suburban county fairs, 4-H kids competing in poultry shows typically keep their birds in stacked cages.
"You'd have a lot of different flocks that would be commingled at an exhibition," Ernst said. "And all it would take would be one flock that may be incubating the virus whenever they came in and end up exposing other flocks."
State agriculture officials plan to re-evaluate those emergency rules in 45-day intervals for up to 150 days.
"If things calm down, that emergency rule can be canceled ... because we're aware that people have put a lot of work into their projects," Ernst said. "And so we really would like to see people be able to show as soon as possible. But by the same token, we don't want to lift that too early and then run the risk of having additional spread."
To date, birds in two infected backyard flocks in McLean and Carroll counties have been "depopulated" or euthanized to contain the spread of the virus. Both had a mixture of chickens and ducks, Ernst said.
Signs of infection include a drop in feed and water consumption, a drop in egg production, and high mortality, said Ron Kean, a faculty associate and extension specialist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison's Department of Animal and Dairy Sciences.
Hobbyists who have backyard chickens should try to eliminate contact with wild birds by keeping their flock "cooped as much as possible," Ernst said.
He also encourages flock owners to be careful whenever they enter their coops or when working with their birds to make sure they're not tracking infection around, either on their footwear or outerwear.
"Those are things that everybody's got to be aware of, and especially ... our smaller flocks, our backyard flocks, because a lot of times the biosecurity isn't as good in those flocks. Things are a little bit looser," Ernst said.
Since January, more than 28 million birds in commercial and backyard flocks have been killed by the disease itself or been euthanized to contain the spread of the virus, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
"On a national level, I think that this has got the makings of being at least as bad and potentially could be worse than the previous outbreak" of bird flu seven years ago, Ernst said.
More than 50 million commercial birds were killed during the 2014-15 outbreak - the worst in U.S. history. At the time, Illinois' commercial flock owners also were able to fend off infections.
Biosecurity may be one reason larger producers have managed to avoid the current crisis, Ernst said.
"I think everybody kind of holds their breath," he said.