Your driving distance from me?! How kewl! I missed meeting Tancredo Monday downtown, that bummed me out bad ;(
AVIAN INFLUENZA, POULTRY, H7 - USA (MARYLAND)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41458-2004Mar8.html Eastern Shore Farmers Grapple with Avian Flu Outbreak
Over the weekend, state authorities confirmed that the outbreak at the
commercial poultry farm in Worcester County was the same strain identified
at 2 Eastern Shore farms in Delaware in early February 2004. By yesterday
afternoon, Maryland officials had strengthened already strict measures to
contain the disease and announced that tests on all 8 farms within 2 miles
of the infected site had come back negative.
Still, news of those results -- as well as negative tests at 2 other farms
in the region -- did little to ease renewed fears among farmers that avian
flu could spread through the region's USD 1.5 billion poultry industry with
devastating effect.
Joe Chisholm, the president of Delmarva Poultry Industry Inc., a regional
trade group, said that until Friday, he and other poultry farmers had taken
comfort in the precautions adopted after the February 2004 outbreak,
including statewide bans on the sale of live poultry in both Maryland and
Delaware.
Also reassuring was the fact that tests of more than 40 percent of the
region's poultry farms since the disease surfaced had all come back
negative. "We were starting to feel like maybe [avian flu] was just limited
to those 2 farms in Delaware, like maybe we were going to be okay,"
Chisholm said. "Now we feel like we have no control. We can do everything
100 percent right, and this can still happen to us."
More than 27 nations have placed varying restrictions on imports of U.S.
poultry in response to the appearance of avian flu in Delaware and Texas.
Unlike versions of the avian flu that have appeared in Asia, the strain
found in Delaware and Maryland has no history of harming humans, officials
said. However, it can be deadly to birds. An airborne respiratory illness,
Avian flu spreads easily among chickens through nasal and eye secretions as
well as manure. It can be transmitted from one farm to another by
equipment, vehicles, and people whose clothing or shoes have come in
contact with the virus.
All 118 000 broilers at the infected farm were depopulated Sunday, in
keeping with state policy, said Sue duPont, a spokeswoman for the Maryland
Department of Agriculture (MDA). The company owning those chickens --
which duPont would not identify -- has voluntarily decided to destroy 210
000 birds at a second farm that shared equipment with the first, she said.
The chickens on commercial poultry farms generally are owned by large
poultry companies, known as integrators. These companies, such as Perdue
Farms and Tysons Foods Inc., pay farmers roughly USD 230 per 1000 birds for
raising each chicken to maturity, Chisholm said. When a flock must be
destroyed because of illness, the farmer loses that payment. Thus, the 328
000 birds destroyed at the 2 affected Maryland farms likely represent a
loss of about USD 75 000 to the farmer.
Farmers do not tend to be insured for such occurrences, Chisholm added. And
though some integrators offer farmers a special disaster payment if a flock
must be destroyed, it is "a long way" from what the farmer would otherwise
have received, he said.
Maryland's attempts to stem the outbreak will also affect farmers. For
instance, state Agriculture Secretary Lewis R. Riley has extended an
earlier ban on spreading poultry manure in areas northeast of Route 50 to
the entire Eastern Shore. That could pose difficulties for grain farmers,
who are entering planting season.
Poultry integrators also will be holding off on sending new chickens to
farms such as Chisholm's that are located within 6 miles of the infected
farm in Maryland.
http://www.baltimoresun.com Bird flu yet to hurt industry
Impact on consumer is not discernible; Exports are affected; Tests negative
in area near Maryland farm
While the avian influenza outbreak continues to reverberate on the Delmarva
Peninsula -- with the latest case discovered in Maryland Saturday -- it has
thus far not rippled to the supermarket shelf.
Despite the slaughter of more than 400 000 chickens infected with the flu
in the past month in 5 states, and bans on U.S. poultry exports by 37
countries and the European Union, officials say, the industry remains
healthy, and the consumer impact invisible, because the total number of
sick birds is relatively small.
But they warn that financial pressure could increase if more cases are
found or the bans continue.
"I just don't know if anyone has a good handle on impacts," said Toby
Moore, a spokesman for the USA Poultry and Egg Export Council. "About 15 or
16 percent of the total U.S. chicken production is exported. Much of that
completely shut down, but that's not to say it's nonexistent. I don't think
anyone is going out of business just yet."
Maryland agriculture officials said yesterday that tests for the flu within
a 2-mile radius of the infected farm in Pocomoke City were negative. 2
additional farms farther away but owned by the same grower also tested
negative.
"This is an encouraging start to our efforts to find any and all possible
avian influenza-positive flocks," said Maryland Secretary of Agriculture
Lewis R. Riley. "We will be collecting samples from all of the 63 farms
between the 2- and 6-mile zones around the positive farm through this week
and hope that the results remain negative."
The avian flu found in the United States is not harmful to humans who come
in contact with or eat infected chickens.
Other countries, mainly in Asia, are grappling with a more harmful strain
that has sickened and killed people. In Japan, the chairman of a Japanese
poultry company blamed for failing to alert the authorities about an
outbreak of avian influenza committed suicide with his wife, authorities
discovered yesterday.
Nations grappling with that more harmful strain have implemented partial or
full bans on U.S. poultry imports. 5 of the largest customers of domestic
chicken farms -- Hong Kong, South Korea, China, Japan, and Mexico -- have
totally banned U.S. chicken -- a loss of USD 9 million a week.
But Russia, the biggest U.S. customer, has banned only Delaware and Texas
chicken thus far, so processors can substitute chickens from other states.
In all, the U.S. poultry industry exports USD 1.5 billion a year worth of meat.
Avian flu, as well as other animal ailments such as bovine spongiform
encephalopathy (BSE) could affect a total of 1/3 of global meat exports
from all countries -- or about USD 10 billion of the estimated USD 33
billion in animal trade -- if trade bans remain in effect through the end
of 2004, according to a recent report from the United Nations Food and
Agricultural Organization.
The trade losses are accruing in 12 countries, including the United States,
with reported animal diseases. The biggest impacts are likely on small
poultry producers in Asia, where more than 100 million birds have died or
been destroyed, the report says.
The report also said that a prolonged ban could force down prices for U.S.
chicken, which accounts for about 1/3 of the world's poultry exports.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has been negotiating with foreign
countries to lift the bans. So far, only Mexico has said it's considering
reducing its ban from all U.S. chicken to just meat from affected states.
In the meantime, the number of chickens destroyed because they are infected
or suspect is still considered relatively small. About 328 000 chickens
were scheduled to be destroyed in Maryland since the flu was discovered in
Pocomoke City on Saturday.
About 85 000 birds in Delaware were destroyed during February 2004. The
Delmarva Peninsula produces about 576 million birds a year for consumption.
"The 300 000 birds destroyed in Maryland are not a lot of chickens,
considering Maryland in 2002 produced 293 million broilers," said Richard
Lobb, a spokesman for the National Chicken Council, a trade group. "This
would have to go on for a really long time to have a major impact."
He did say, however, there are individual growers with losses because their
flocks were destroyed to prevent spread of the virus. And some growers have
worried about possible increased costs of fertilizer because manure, which
can contain the virus, has been banned.
Auctions of equipment and meetings have also been called off, and movement
of people and trucks has been limited to prevent spreading the flu.
But growers on the Delmarva Peninsula, who grow chickens mainly for major
processors such as Perdue Farms Inc. and Tyson Foods Inc., can send their
birds to processing once they've tested negative for flu.
On 3 Delmarva farms where avian flu has been found, the processor that owns
the chickens absorbs the first USD 100 000 in losses, and state and local
government programs help offset other losses, according to Perdue.
State officials say they will continue to test for the flu. So far, close
to 1000 farms have tested negative.