Word: flu
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...Chisholm, 62, has taken every precaution that he and the poultry industry can think of to protect his chicken farm in Pocomoke City, Md., from avian flu. After he gets up every morning at 5:30, he reads the paper, drinks a cup of coffee and heads out the door for the first of four inspections of his chicken houses about 30 yards away, keeping an eye open for sickly-looking birds. He also sprays his shoes with disinfectant when he goes to an area where other chicken farmers may be, washes down all trucks before they roll onto...
Lately, Chisholm has been paying a lot more attention to the news from overseas. Since the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus was first reported in Turkey last fall, avian flu has spread swiftly, landing in France, Germany, Iraq, India, Nigeria, Niger, Poland and many other countries. So far this year, three dozen human cases have been confirmed in China, Turkey, Iraq and Indonesia...
Most experts think it's just a matter of time before avian flu finds its way to the Americas. Dr. David Nabarro, U.N. coordinator for avian and human influenza, told reporters last week he believed that H5N1 would jump to the New World "within the next six to 12 months." The U.S. government appears to agree. "Be prepared for H5N1 being identified in the U.S.," Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said earlier this month. "It would be almost biblical to think we would be protected...
Warnings like that are hard to ignore, and major U.S. poultry growers are paying close attention. In January the industry decided to step up its existing biosecurity measures by testing some birds in every flock for the most dangerous types of avian flu before they leave the chicken house to be slaughtered. All the birds in an infected flock would be put down immediately, and the surrounding area quarantined. "Our strategy is to keep sick birds on the farm," says Richard Lobb of the National Chicken Council. "Once the virus escapes into the environment, it's very hard to control...
Vaccinating against avian flu could potentially avoid those problems since inoculated chickens don't get sick in the first place. But while some European farmers have begun doing just that, the idea seems impractical in the U.S. "If you have to put down a flock, you lose maybe 50,000 birds," notes Lobb. "That is much easier than trying to vaccinate 10 billion birds, which is about what we will produce this year...