Avian Flu - Washington State

[Cluckadoodledo]

Good news for Port Angeles, WA. As of January 28,2015, no new cases of avian flu in the Agnew area just East of Port Angeles, WA have been found.

PORT ANGELES — Federal health officials have finished their door-to-door inspection of poultry in the Agnew area east of Port Angeles that have been quarantined since Jan. 20 in response to the discovery of birds on a single property that were infected with avian flu.No other instances of the bird flu have been found.“Surveillance activities have concluded in Clallam County,” Alan Huddleston, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said Wednesday afternoon. “I can also confirm that to date, all samples from Clallam County have been negative.” The quarantine encompasses a 6.2-mile — or 10-kilometer — radius around 92 Cosmos Lane, where a backyard flock of 118 birds owned by Sherry and Gary Smith was destroyed Jan. 18 after at least five birds died of the H5N2 strain of avian flu. Avian flu is lethal and highly contagious among birds but is not harmful to humans.Poultry, eggs Inspectors had been going door to door since Jan. 19 within a 1.9-mile radius of the Smith property to talk with people and, if they owned poultry, ask that they allow testing of the birds.The state Department of Agriculture also set a quarantine on the movement of eggs, domestic poultry and poultry products within a 6.2-mile radius of the Smith property.[For an interactive map of the quarantine area, go to http://tinyurl.com/PDN-avianflumap. Type in your address to see if your home is within the quarantine area.]There is still no date set for the quarantine to be lifted.As of Monday, the team of inspectors had visited 1,039 locations, according to Hector Castro, state Department of Agriculture spokesman.Of those, there were 32 locations with domesticated poultry that allowed inspectors to take samples from their birds. There were 22 other properties visited whose owners did not allow inspectors to take samples. Inspectors had been visiting “high-risk” areas — places near waterways that draw large numbers of wild birds — within the outer perimeter of the quarantine zone because officials believe the contaminated birds were infected by wild fowl.“Wild water fowl is definitely where we are thinking the disease is being spread,” Castro said. Who to call Officials urged bird owners to protect their domestic birds from contact with wild water fowl and to remain vigilant in their biosecurity measures, and encouraged poultry owners who suspect sickness among their birds to contact state Department of Health officials at 800-606-3056.Those who suspect wild birds of being ill are asked to call the state Department of Fish and Wildlife at 800-606-8768.The virus has not been detected in any commercial poultry operations in Washington state or elsewhere in the nation, health officials said.A quarantine that had been issued in parts of Franklin and Benton counties in Southeast Washington was lifted Tuesday.Avian flu was found in two Benton County backyard flocks in December.

Last modified: January 28. 2015 6:40PM

 

[scratch'n'peck]

@Campesina posted this link else ware, and I thought I would just add it to this thread to refresh anyone interested on the basics of biosecurity.

http://www.backyardpoultrymag.com/biosecurity-coop/

 

[niman]

The sequence of the H5N1 in the teal in Washington was made public today. It has the same Fujian H5 as was initially reported for am H5N8 crane in Japan. The H5 is clade 2.3.4.4, which has caused fatal human cases as H5N1 and H5N6. The USDA says it is not a human threat "at this time" because a human case has not been reported for the new constellation and not because the H5 has not caused prior human cases in China.

This commentary has links to the US sequences for each sero-type (and each originated in Washington State)

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/02161501/H5N8_Fujian_Kings.html

 

[niman]

Here is a direct link to the H5N1 sequence for the teal in Washington

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/KP739421

 

[Skyfire]

I personally would look into the regulations before having sick birds tested for the flu to make sure the flock wouldn't be seized/killed by the authorities

I would not want my birds (that are pets with benefits) seized by the state and killed for a low pathogenic strain that they might very well recover from. I am sure there are ways to submit samples for testing while preserving anonymity. Maybe that is tinfoil hat paranoia but better safe than sorry!

I feel the same way you do. Our gosling will be a treasured family pet, no less loved than a dog or cat. I would put its safety first too.

 

[enola]

There is no such thing as a strain of avian flu that domestic poultry will recover from.

 

[Cluckadoodledo]

My friend recently described to me the experience she had regarding her chickens in the quarantine area on the Olympic Peninsula, WA. She looked out her kitchen window the other day to see a group of people approach in white hazmat suits. She had forgotten about the quarantine, and being an RN, her first thought was, "Wow! Are we under attack by biological terrorists!" As the inspectors identified themselves to her and got about the business of swabbing her chickens to collect samples, she asked them a few questions. It turns out, they are from various states throughout the US and fly around to different locations to test poultry and livestock for disease. After discussing the ins and outs of their jobs, she asked where she needs to send her job application. She told me, this would be her "dream" job!

 

[Sonya9]

There is no such thing as a strain of avian flu that domestic poultry will recover from.

They may retain the virus for life but there are most certainly a lot of mild avian flu strains that the birds recover from, in fact they may never even show symptoms of illness. Bird populations always have yearly flu viruses just like the human population does.

Quote:

 

[Sonya9]

My friend recently described to me the experience she had regarding her chickens in the quarantine area on the Olympic Peninsula, WA. She looked out her kitchen window the other day to see a group of people approach in white hazmat suits. She had forgotten about the quarantine, and being an RN, her first thought was, "Wow! Are we under attack by biological terrorists!" As the inspectors identified themselves to her and got about the business of swabbing her chickens to collect samples, she asked them a few questions. It turns out, they are from various states throughout the US and fly around to different locations to test poultry and livestock for disease. After discussing the ins and outs of their jobs, she asked where she needs to send her job application. She told me, this would be her "dream" job!

Wow....that would freak me out big time! If folks in hazmat suits showed here and wanted to go anywhere near my animals they had better have a warrant signed by a judge (those suits can't stop bullets and that thought would cross their minds). Some folks here use a local state lab to necropsy their deceased chickens at no cost, the state vet tests for all sorts of things so I wouldn't do it unless I had some degree of anonymity.

The way I see it, if they are wearing hazmat suits and you are not that often makes you "part of the problem". I actually did buy a full face respirator and suit during the ebola scare. My fear was not dying of the disease as much as being labeled as "infected" at which point you lose all rights, get locked up in quarantine, have all your belongings incinerated and worst of all risk having all of your animals killed or experimented on and then killed.

Fact is if a deadly H1 Avian virus mutates and becomes easily transmissable between humans that mutation will almost certainly occur in Asia. If/when that happens the government is not going to do much to prevent infected humans from entering the US and spreading the virus throughout the population.

 

[enola]

To Sonya, IF domestic fowl Some how happen to recover, they will be carriers for the rest of their lives. That is EXACTLY why flocks with sick birds need to be tested and if they are carrying avian flu, the entire flock needs to be destroyed.