Media Coverage
February 21, 2003 to February 28, 2003
Most Current is Listed First
Media Coverage - Main Page
HSUS Humanlines
Issue 236 - February 27, 2003
http://www.hsus.org/ace/18497
Cockfighting Hurts More Than Just Fighting Birds
In California, illegal cockfighting is claiming victims beyond those killed in the fighting ring. More than three million chickens and other birds—including birds at southern California factory farms—have been ordered killed by federal and state authorities in response to an outbreak of Exotic Newcastle Disease (END), a highly contagious avian disease thought to have been introduced into the area by California's huge illegal cockfighting industry. The San Diego Tribune (2/22) reports that the workers at one factory farming operation, the Ward Egg Ranch, put 30,000 "spent hens" through a wood chipping machine, after their hands became tired from wringing the chickens' necks. This method of killing was reportedly authorized by a USDA consultant.
Ironically, USDA is spending tax dollars to compensate cockfighters for the "depopulation" of their gamecocks, rewarding them generously for engaging in a practice that is illegal under federal and state law. It's time for the USDA to halt its outrageous payments to illegal animal fighters and to start enforcing the federal anti-cockfighting law. Had USDA been vigorously enforcing laws against animal fighting, it is likely that END would have not become so widespread. In a February 20 letter to USDA Secretary Ann Veneman, The HSUS urged Veneman not only to implement stronger enforcement of anti-cockfighting laws, but also to support new legislation to increase penalties for violating the federal cockfighting law. (To read more on this issue, The HSUS's press release.)
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Add your voice to those asking Secretary Veneman to immediately take steps to ensure enforcement of federal cockfighting laws, and to publicly endorse the Ensign-Allard-Cantwell (Senate) and Bartlett-Andrews (House) legislation to increase federal penalties for animal fighting.
The Honorable Ann Veneman
Secretary of Agriculture
U.S. Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave., SW
Washington, D.C. 20250
Contact the San Diego County District Attorney's office and ask them to investigate and prosecute credible evidence of massive violations of California's animal cruelty law (which prohibits subjecting any animal to needless suffering or unnecessary cruelty) at the Ward Egg Ranch.
San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie M. Dumanis
330 W. Broadway
Suite 1300
San Diego, CA 92101
619-531-4040
Fax: 619-237-1351
E-mail: publicinformation@sdcda.org
HSUS
HSUS Assists in Shutting Down a Major California Cockfighting Operation
http://www.hsus.org/ace/18470
More than 70 officers from a host of law-enforcement agencies and animal-control and humane organizations swooped down on a gamecock training and breeding facility in Napa County on February 22, the culmination of a six-month investigation into one of the largest cockfighting operations in Northern California history.
HSUS personnel, as well as a team of law enforcement and animal-control officers from agencies throughout California, assisted deputies and animal-control officers with the Napa County Sheriff's Department in raiding the five-acre property. Over the course of two days, they seized 1,546 gamecocks and bags full of cockfighting paraphernalia, including razor-sharp gaffs, fighting muffs, training aids, and medical supplies.
Investigators also found several guns within the maze of cages and coops on the property, including one stolen gun from Colusa County and a laser-sighted rifle. What's more, they discovered several dead, sick or injured birds, which triggered members of the Exotic Newcastle Disease Task Force of the California Department of Food and Agriculture to test a sampling of birds for evidence of the deadly disease. Exotic Newcastle has already led to the destruction of more than 3 million birds in Southern California, far from this northern location. The test results are still pending.
The Napa County operation is thought to be the largest in California since authorities shut down a 20-acre facility in San Diego County in May 2001, said Eric Sakach, Director of the HSUS West Coast Regional Office, who served as a special advisor to the Napa County Sheriff's Department throughout the investigation. The San Diego County bust was the result of a two-year investigation and led to the seizure of more than 2,500 gamecocks.
But authorities believe that when one major facility is shut down, its operators merely move to another site. Such was apparently the case with the Napa County site, which swelled rapidly into a huge operation. Authorities believe gamecocks were imported from across the United States and probably shipped out to just as many locales, movements that concern state and federal agriculture officials about the potential spread of Newcastle disease.
"Undercover officers purchased gamecocks on several occasions in the months preceding the action during which they observed demonstrations of the birds' fighting abilities," Sakach said.
Authorities met with no resistance when they raided the Napa County site. Ultimately, 13 men were cited and released, and two individuals were arrested and booked into the Napa County jail. Charges ranged from possession of fighting cocks, possession of cockfighting implements, conspiracy, and immigration violations.
Cockfighting is currently a misdemeanor in California, but a bill introduced in February 2003 would significantly strengthen the state's cockfighting laws. Those convicted of possessing, fighting or betting on birds could face penalties of up to three years in prison and a fine of up to $20,000. The proposed law would also make a repeat offender ineligible for probation or a conditional or suspended sentence.
Personnel who took part in the operation included SWAT team members and officers from the Napa County Sheriff's Department and the Napa Police Department. Others included personnel from agencies such as The HSUS West Coast and Southeast Regional Offices, United States Department of Agriculture/Office of Inspector General, Galt Police Department, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, San Diego Humane Society, Stanislaus County Animal Services, Solano County Animal Services, Peninsula Humane Society/San Mateo County Animal Services, El Dorado County Animal Control, Sacramento City Animal Control, and California Highway Patrol.
"Illegal cockfighting has been growing in popularity in Napa County," said Sakach. "We commend the Napa County Sheriff's Department for taking the necessary steps to stop these incidents from occurring, and we've been assured they will ask for stiff prosecution for the offenders. We remain committed to helping law enforcement find the resources necessary to combat this cruel and illegal activity."
HSUS
http://www.hsus.org/ace/16087
California, Nevada and Arizona Use Questionable Tactics to Battle Newcastle
Disease
The battle against Exotic Newcastle Disease (END) in U.S. poultry has taken a
turn for the worse as the disease, previously found only in Southern
California, has spread to Nevada and Arizona where federal workers have
started destroying birds as part of a preventative eradication program.
The disease has already devastated the bird population of Southern
California. As a result, the governor has declared a state of emergency and
has imposed extraordinary measures to prevent the spread to more northern
counties, such as Merced and Fresno, where some of the state's biggest
poultry producers are located. California officials have also instituted a
ban on the movement of poultry in several Southern California counties and
have launched a survey to check the health of so-called "backyard" flocks.
Initially, this highly virulent disease had been found in only backyard
flocks, but has since spread to 17 commercial flocks. As a result, more than
3 million birds have been destroyed in California, including an estimated
110,000 backyard birds. The number of backyard birds destroyed in Nevada is
currently 2,560, and 239 in Arizona. More depopulation is scheduled.
"While this battle to eradicate the disease through mass slaughter continues,
the primary focus will be the economic value of poultry and poultry products
and the effect of this disease on international trade," says Tamiko Thomas,
an animal scientist and program manager with the Farm Animals and Sustainable
Agriculture section of The HSUS. "What will receive much less attention is
the welfare of the millions of birds that have been slaughtered and what it
is about modern agriculture that predisposes it to problems of this sort."
END is a highly contagious and fatal viral disease that affects all species
of birds. The disease affects the respiratory, digestive, and nervous system.
Symptoms include sneezing, gasping, nasal discharge, greenish, watery
diarrhea, muscular tremors, drooping wings, swelling of the head, and
complete paralysis. END is so virulent birds can die without showing any
clinical signs.
State and federal animal health officials are attempting to eradicate END by
destroying all infected flocks. What's more, the emergency declaration means
they can also destroy flocks as a preventative measure. It's unclear yet
whether there's a more bird friendly way to deal with this emergency.
"This kind of mass eradication has already been tried in California in the
1970s when END was found," Thomas says. "Before the disease was finally
halted, some 12 million birds had been slaughtered over three years, at a
cost of $56 million." The cost of this mass slaughter program is currently
more than $38 million and will continue to rise.
The Meating Place, an online industry newsletter, acknowledges that the
eradication program even causes people in the industry to pick sides: "There
is an emerging rift between knowledgeable egg-industry veterinarians who
favor quarantine, limited depletion and intensified vaccination, and
regulatory veterinarians, who are pursuing a 'traditional' program of
detection and slaughter."
What's clear, however, is that competition and an emphasis on cheap food have
driven the concentration of the poultry industry to the point where a million
birds can be found on a single factory farm. This concentration has made
industrial agriculture vulnerable to the spread of disease, and hence also
bioterrorism. Many feel this is threatening the security of our food supply.
While being part of a small flock will not protect birds from contracting
Exotic Newcastle Disease, it does lessen the body count. It is difficult for
the disease to travel from farm to farm, but once it is found in a flock, the
standard veterinary practice is to destroy the entire flock. Because of this
approach, the number of birds slaughtered in California has shot up by more
than twenty fold, thanks to the disease found in the 17 commercial flocks.
"This systematic killing of suspect flocks is a rather blunt instrument of
eradication and shows little consideration and sensitivity for birds not
raised for production but as companions," Thomas notes.
One vocal opponent of the eradication effort is Cherylynn Costner, the
President of the Hillary Chicken Memorial Fund, which is a non-profit based
in California. Costner helps save domesticated and exotic birds and is
concerned for California's companion birds. She feels that this eradication
effort is wrongfully protecting the economic interests of a select group of
individuals and corporations, the poultry industry, while causing anguish and
loss for another group.
Environment News
AmeriScan: February 28, 2003
California Birds Dying of Exotic Newcastle Disease
http://ens-news.com/ens/feb2003/2003-02-28-09.asp
MODESTO, California, February 28, 2003 (ENS) - The Exotic Newcastle Disease Task Force is scheduled to begin a door-to-door surveillance program in the Central Valley on Monday, with the first surveys of backyard bird flocks slated to take place in Stanislaus and Fresno Counties. At this point, the viral disease which infects poultry is not known to exist north of the Tehachapi mountain range. But the surveillance program, which mayextend to 20 Northern California counties, is intended to give the Task Force a head start if the disease does become established in the Central Valley, the agricultural center of the state.
The death count for chickens reached three million in Southern California this week, where the poultry industry has been devastated by the disease. The Task Force said Tuesday that the virus infected a flock of 55,000 chickens in San Diego County, the fifth commercial flock in the county to be infected.
California Governor Gray Davis and USDA Secretary Ann Veneman each proclaimed emergencies for the disease in January. To date, the virus has infected 17 commercial facilities and 1,997 residential properties in Southern California. The disease poses no risk to public health, officials say.
Some 2.1 million birds have destroyed since the disease was first discovered in backyard poultry and pet birds in Los Angeles County in the fall of 2002. The disease has spread to Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and San Diego counties, and authorities have imposed a broad quarantine.
“Exotic Newcastle Disease has already cost tens of millions of dollars to fight,” said California Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary William J. Lyons, Jr. “Many millions more will be lost if it is allowed to spread. This surveillance program is critical if we are to attain our goal of prompt eradication.”
The surveys will occur in cooperation with county agricultural commissioners, and consist of teams of task force members going door-to-door in residential areas thought to have substantial populations of backyard birds. The teams will inquire about numbers of birds on the premises, ask about the health of those birds, and provide Exotic Newcastle Disease informational materials.
Napa Valley Register, CA
Fighting fowl get clean bill of health
2,000 roosters, hens saved from death
Friday, February 28, 2003
http://www.napanews.com/templates/index.cfm?template=story_full&id=4AB261A0-00FB-46FB-B7FC-FE16BAC4F17C
By ROSEANN KEEGAN
Register Staff Writer
Almost 2,000 roosters and hens were saved from sudden death this week after state health officials determined the flocks were free of the Exotic Newcastle disease.
The poultry reside on a Foster Road property in Napa that was raided Feb. 22 on cockfighting charges. Members of the state's Newcastle disease task force took samples from any sickly birds on the property, but officials said tests came back negative Wednesday.
If the birds had tested positive for the deadly avian disease, they all would have been immediately euthanized.
"I think clearly if it had been found, we would be trying to implement a program to eliminate the virus from that property and surrounding areas," said Dave Whitmer, Napa County Agricultural Commissioner.
For most of the birds, however, the Newcastle clearance just postponed their imminent deaths. Officers seized 1,546 alleged fighting roosters during the two-day raid, leaving hens and younger males untagged. If the cocks go unclaimed, they will be euthanized, said Doug Pace of the county sheriff's department.
According to the state department of food and agriculture, Exotic Newcastle disease is a contagious and fatal viral disease affecting all species of birds. It is one of the most infectious diseases of poultry in the world, so virulent that many birds die without showing any clinical signs. A death rate of nearly 100 percent can occur.
The disease is lethal only to birds, not to humans, and is said to have no public health consequences.
In 1971, a major outbreak occurred in commercial poultry flocks in Southern California. The disease threatened not only the California poultry industry but also the entire U.S. poultry and egg supply. In all, 1,341 infected flocks were identified, and almost 12 million birds were destroyed. State officials say the eradication program cost taxpayers $56 million, severely disrupted the operations of many producers and increased the prices of poultry and poultry products to consumers.
The disease returned late last year, in backyard poultry in Southern California. Gov. Gray Davis declared a state of emergency, and San Diego, Riverside, Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties declared local emergencies because of the outbreak.
It has now spread beyond backyard poultry to affect commercial operations in California, into backyard poultry in Nevada and Arizona, and it's still spreading.
"For us in California, poultry is a fairly big business," said Whitmer, who has been regularly meeting with state officials to prepare for a possible Newcastle outbreak in Napa County. "We produce a lot, and ship a lot to other states in the U.S."
When the disease is detected, Whitmer said, producers are forced to quarantine and depopulate their flocks.
"Then you end up with a tough economic hit on the poultry industry. They loose their markets and loose their flocks and have to rebuild. That's huge," Whitmer said.
But with few, if any, commercial poultry operations in Napa County, Whitmer said the need is less urgent to monitor the presence of the disease locally.
"There are other places in the county where we see poultry being raised, and certainly those operations will be under consideration for this Exotic Newcastle disease issue," Whitmer said. "But clearly we don't have a lot of commercial poultry (farms), considered one of the highest priority locations."
Roseann Keegan can be reached at 256-2220 or rlanglois@napanews.com
North County Times, CA
County investigates mulching of live chickens
KATHRYN GILLICK
Staff Writer
http://www.nctimes.net/news/2003/20030228/51101.html
San Diego County launched a cruelty-to-animals probe Thursday into the mulching of live chickens at a Valley Center poultry farm.
The farmer, Bill Wilgenburg, said he had to use a mulcher on about 15,000 of 40,000 chickens at his Valley Center Egg Ranch last week because of rules imposed by the federal-state Task Force on Newcastle's Disease.
Wilgenburg said he was not permitted to ship the chickens, which he said were not diseased, to his other farm in Potrero, and he was forbidden to send them to a Central Valley slaughterhouse. Task force officials conceded Thursday that Wilgenburg had been given no alternative but to kill his chickens.
The inquiry questions whether the farmer or the task force committed acts of cruelty to animals by putting chickens to death by stuffing them into the mulcher alive.
Interviews proceed
County animal services Lt. Mary Kay Gagliardo alerted the North County Times to the investigation late Wednesday. She said Thursday that Officer Karen McCracken has interviewed U.S. Department of Agriculture veterinarian David Kerr, ranch workers, neighbors, the company that rented Wilgenburg the equipment, and Gregg Cutler, a consulting veterinarian with the U.S. Agriculture Department.
"We're trying to find out who's behind this," she said. "It's clearly animal cruelty."
Gagliardo said she expects McCracken's report today. The information in that report, she said, will determine whether the agency pursues charges under state animal-cruelty laws.
"It's still under investigation," said Gagliardo.
Deadly illness
Exotic Newcastle disease, which has a mortality rate of between 90 percent and 100 percent in poultry, has hit five commercial farms in San Diego County since December and 17 commercial farms statewide since October. The disease spreads so quickly, task force officials said they have to kill every bird at an infected site. More than 2 million birds have been killed in California because of the outbreak.
It is carried in the mucus or feces of infected birds and does not affect humans.
The task force is not releasing the names of the infected farms, but through an independent investigation, the North County Times has discovered that the disease has hit Sylvester International Farms and the Armstrong Egg Ranches on Cole Grade and Lilac roads.
Wilgenburg's ranch is only a few blocks from the infected Cole Grade ranch.
Wringing is preferred
Wilgenburg told the North County Times on Wednesday that he had put live chickens into the mulcher, but said he stopped when a county animal services representative contacted a manager at his Potrero farm.
"They told us that we had to wring their necks or kill them with (carbon monoxide)," he said. So, he said, they started breaking the chickens' necks first.
Wilgenburg estimated that 15,000 of the chickens at the Valley Center ranch were put into the chipper, some alive, and the rest were not mulched. The remaining chickens had their necks broken and were loaded onto bins and taken to a landfill by task force workers, Wilgenburg said.
The task force normally gas infected birds with carbon monoxide, said task force spokesman Larry Hawkins.
Wilgenburg said he discussed the chipper method with Agriculture Department consulting veterinarian Cutler.
Cutler did not return calls Thursday.
Different blades
Gagliardo said chopping up chickens alive wasn't totally unheard of, but that, normally, a special machine is used that has different blades than a wood chipper.
Wilgenburg said that despite his choice in methods, the birds had to be killed.
"We disliked doing it, but we felt like there was no alternative," he said. Because of the farm's proximity to an infected site, it had been placed under the highest level quarantine. Wilgenburg was not permitted to move his chickens on or off the property, even to his Potrero location.
He said he was also told that because of the federal quarantine, which covers San Diego, Riverside, Orange, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Imperial, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, he could not send the chickens to a Central Valley slaughterhouse, which Wilgenburg said is the only one in the state. USDA spokesman Hawkins said he did not know if the Central Valley slaughterhouse is the only one in the state, but he said that if there had been one in the quarantined counties, Wilgenburg could have sent his birds there.
He'll be compensated
Hawkins said the inability of farmers to send their chickens to the slaughterhouse had not been a problem before this, because, unlike Wilgenburg, other farmers have been able to keep uninfected flocks on their property.
Because of the unusual situation, Hawkins said, the task force decided to compensate Wilgenburg for the birds.
"We said that 'because our regulations have equated to a taking because we've taken your market, we'll indemnify you,' " Hawkins said.
Because the birds were not infected, Hawkins said the task force left it up to Wilgenburg to kill them.
"What the task force knew is that he was going to use cervical dislocation (neck wringing) and then the chipper," he said. "Because of the bio-security measures we have in place, though, including the quarantine, we had forced him into a position where the chickens couldn't move off the property."
Hawkins and Wilgenburg said they have not been contacted by animal services in connection with the investigation.
Questions concerning the Newcastle disease may be addressed to the California Food and Agriculture Department at (800) 491-1899 or the U.S. Department of Agriculture at (800) 940-6524.
Contact staff writer Kathryn Gillick at (760) 740-5412 or kgillick@nctimes.com.
2/28/03
Antelope Valley Press, CA
Newcastle toll mounts; losses may get worse
This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press Thursday, February 27, 2003.
By HEATHER LAKE
Valley Press Staff Writer
http://www.avpress.com/n/thsty1.hts
LAKE LOS ANGELES - Experts in exotic Newcastle disease said Tuesday that Los Angeles County has not yet peaked in its battle against the disease, which is taking its toll on the commercial chicken industry and leaving a trail of anguish among residential breeders in its wake.
Close to 100 people turned out at Vista San Gabriel Elementary School for the regular meeting of the Lake Los Angeles Town Council and stayed through 90 minutes of other council business for an update on the effort to eradicate Newcastle disease.
Seventeen commercial chicken facilities and more than 2,000 residential properties throughout Southern California have been infected with Newcastle disease, and more than 2 million birds have died from the disease or have been euthanized.
The eradication effort is a multi-agency effort involving the California Food and Drug Administration and the United States Department of Agriculture. Emergency personnel throughout the county also are being called upon to assist because Southern California has been declared a disaster area by the federal government.
Thirty countries in the world have an embargo on California poultry, said Dr. Don Cheatham, who gave a presentation Tuesday night and fielded questions from the audience.
Instances of the disease also have shown up in Arizona and Nevada, and officials are working tirelessly to ensure it doesn't make its way into Central California, where the majority of chickens used for human consumption are raised.
The Modesto area is being closely monitored for any sign of the disease, and experts say the natural divide east of the Tehachapi mountains and the Sierra Nevada is a positive factor in the fight to contain the disease in Southern California.
Paramount in fighting the disease is the diligent practice of biosecurity, steps residents must take to help prevent the transmission of the disease. This includes disinfecting materials and clothing that may come in contact with the virus.
No matter what the 1,800 task force members do to try and combat the disease, without the help of residents who raise birds, task force members are fighting an uphill battle against the second most serious outbreak of the disease the country has ever seen.
Though there is no way to be positive, experts feel confident that the illegal exportation of birds from Mexico is to blame for the outbreak in California that first was documented in October but probably began sooner, said Cheatham. The strain of virus wreaking havoc in Southern California is genetically identical to one that killed over 13 million chickens in Mexico in 2000.
Experts also are concerned about the transportation of fighting cocks from Littlerock, which they suspect is to blame for the spread of the disease to Nevada and Arizona.
Of great concern to several who attended Tuesday night's meeting, some from as far away as Norco, is their assertion that killing birds which have not tested positive is illegal.
It is the CFDA's policy, according to Daniel Parry, spokesman for the USDA, to identify infected populations, euthanize them, then determine if there is a risk of "dangerous contact" to surrounding flocks.
Dangerous contact is considered highly probable in properties adjacent to infected properties. A quarantine is implemented in a one-kilometer radius of every infected property.
Parry did not confirm that those flocks considered likely to have dangerous contact are tested before being killed, saying only that the decision to depopulate a property is made by veterinarians who consider first a number of factors that increase or decrease the likelihood of exposure. Among those factors are the degrees of biosecurity being practiced to prevent transmission of the disease as well as how well bird populations are contained.
Parry also said he believes the likelihood of transmission, especially among chickens and other fowl, is near 100% upon contact with infected birds.
Other birds such as finches, lories, macaws, canaries, mynahs and African gray parrots are less susceptible to the disease, but can be carriers.
"Most birds are potential carriers, and the virus can actually mix within them," Dr. Anna Welsch, a veterinarian from New Jersey, said.
Caged birds that have become infected might show diminished symptoms such as mild tremors, but infected fowl will show symptoms in their nervous, digestive and respiratory systems and eventually die from internal hemorrhage.
The virus can live anywhere from a week to a month. In hot, dry conditions the virus dies sooner, but in moist conditions, it thrives. It can be transmitted directly though contact with infected birds, feces or by air over a short distance. It also can be transmitted indirectly through contact with contaminated people, vehicles, equipment, insects and rodents, according to information from the CDFA.
For more information about Newcastle and how to prevent transmission or for biosecurity measures, call the hotline at (800) 491-1899.
Union-Tribune, CA
Illegal sport, weak laws put poultry industry at risk
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/uniontrib/thu/opinion/news_mz1e27sport.html
February 27, 2003
Operating a poultry and-or egg farm is a tough business in the best of times. The onslaught of exotic Newcastle disease, or END, has made the past few months vie for the worst of times for Southern California's billion-dollar poultry and egg industry and for some residents who raise chickens, roosters and other birds in their back yards. More than a million birds have been destroyed because of this disease, which is highly contagious to all birds (though not to humans).
This is not, however, just a problem for producers, whom the U.S. Department of Agriculture is recompensing for destroyed birds; for their employees, some of whom may lose their jobs, and for consumers, potentially faced with higher prices. This problem also involves state legislation, environmental concerns and taxpayer dollars.
State and federal officials on the END Task Force say the best indications are that END came to the area via fighting cocks, which Californians may legally own but cannot legally fight. The statute on that issue makes prosecution of owners who do fight their birds very difficult, despite the general public abhorrence of cockfighting and the near inability to ensure that birds legally owned for show purposes don't end up in illegal fights.
If fighting cocks do prove to have been the genesis of this infection, state legislators should revisit a law vulnerable to being more abused than enforced. Meantime, enforcement officers have good reason to step up the pace of their occasional raids.
Still, because the owners of fighting cocks that have been destroyed so far have not been convicted of illegally fighting them, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is paying them, too, at $1,000 or more per bird. Officials of the national Humane Society call it a waste of money. Most taxpayers likely agree.
The birds destroyed under the auspices of the task force are gassed, then sealed in plastic to prevent leaching and buried in containers in landfills, a method approved by the American Veterinary Medical Association. Birds euthanized in San Diego County, a task force member tells us, will be buried in San Diego County landfills – which may or may not boost efforts to expand them.
The task force, fortunately, is rethinking its policy of not disclosing the names of individual farms and ranches where outbreaks have occurred, for fear that rubber-neckers can easily if inadvertently spread the contamination. But the curious who find that to be only a challenge may spread the virus too. The more the public knows about this near-disaster, the likelier it is not only to stay away from contaminated areas but to take on the policy and policing challenges END poses.
Copyright 2003 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
San Bernardino County Sun, CA
Baca to serve on two subcommittees
February 27, 2003
http://www.sbsun.com/Stories/0,1413,208%257E12588%257E1207194,00.html?search=filter
Rep. Joe Baca, D-Rialto, has been appointed to two subcommittees of the House Agriculture Committee, his office announced Wednesday.
Baca will serve on the Subcommittee on Department Operations, Oversight, Nutrition and Forestry and on the Subcommittee on Livestock and Horticulture.
The latter subcommittee has jurisdiction over the management of livestock diseases, including exotic Newcastle disease, which is ravaging chickens and other birds in several counties.
San Jose Mercury News, CA
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/5278476.htm
February 27, 2003
SAN RAFAEL, Calif. (AP) - A virulent disease threatening the state's poultry population has forced the Marin County Fair to cancel all bird exhibits and competitions this year.
Since October, Exotic Newcastle Disease has infected 2,000 backyard poultry flocks and 17 commercial egg-laying facilities in Riverside, Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties.
Gov. Gray Davis declared a state of emergency in the fight against the disease. It has yet to spread to Central or Northern California.
The virus poses no threat to human health. However, it can be spread by people who come in contact with the manure or mucus of infected chickens.
"I think you can't be too careful," said avian veterinarian Dr. Chuck Galvin of Novato. "I'm telling all my clients not to go to bird shows. ... Pet stores should be very careful where they're getting their stock. They should just get it from local breeders that they know who also must deal with their own stock so we don't have too many birds moving around and spreading things."
The state Department of Food and Agriculture already has euthanized almost 3 million chickens in its effort to protect the state's billion dollar poultry industry.
Poultry flocks in eight Southern California counties have been quarantined and the state has asked local fair boards to cancel all bird and poultry shows and expositions.
"This is a very serious problem for the poultry industry," Jim Farley, Marin Center Deputy Director said. "The Marin County Fair and Farm Day will not include live birds. If it has a beak and feathers, it won' t be on the fairground."
Press-Enterprise, CA
Marin County Fair cancels all bird exhibits this year
http://www.pe.com/ap_news/California/CA_Bird_Disease_98784C.shtml
The Associated Press
SAN RAFAEL
-- A virulent disease threatening the state's poultry population has forced the Marin County Fair to cancel all bird exhibits and competitions this year.
Since October, Exotic Newcastle Disease has infected two thousand backyard poultry flocks and 17 commercial egg-laying facilities in Riverside, Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties.
Gov. Davis has declared a state of emergency in the fight against the disease. It has yet to spread to Central or Northern California.
The virus poses no threat to human health. However -- it can be spread by people who come in contact with the manure or mucus of infected chickens.
The state Department of Food and Agriculture already has euthanized almost three (m) million chickens in its effort to protect the state's (b) billion dollar poultry industry.
(Marin Independent Journal)
Published: Thursday, February 27, 2003 10:33 PST
The Press Enterprise - CA
San Bernardino Edition
CHP to Inspect Poultry Trucks
February 26, 2003
NOT ONLINE - Scanned
(LINK)
North County Times, CA
What's the big secret?
Editorial
http://www.nctimes.net/news/2003/20030226/50527.html
A billion-dollar industry is being decimated in California and state and federal agencies owe the public more information about it.
The California and U.S. Departments of Agriculture, working together as the Exotic Newcastle Disease Task Force, are refusing to release information about which farms have been hit by the disease, which does not threaten humans but is threatening California's $1.3 billion poultry industry.
Eight Southern California counties have been quarantined and 2.9 million of the state's 23 million hens have been destroyed, task force spokeswoman Leticia Rico said Tuesday ---- 13 percent of the laying hens in the state. At risk in the zone already under quarantine are 9 million hens, Rico said ---- nearly 40 percent of the state's industry.
Five egg farms have been affected and 450,000 chickens destroyed in North County since the disease spread here this month. Eggs are a $48 million industry in our county, and farmers are laying off workers.
And Southern California is a national center for breeders of exotic parrots, which sell for $600 to $6,000 apiece. Millions of dollars worth of breeding stock and thousands of these beautiful animals also could be threatened by Newcastle's disease.
With so many people's livelihood at stake, and the food supply disrupted, the California and U.S. Departments of Agriculture have no business withholding information about where the outbreak hits next. It should not have been necessary for the North County Times to file an Open Records Act request to get this information. The task force should be informing the public routinely of which farms are infected.
Rico said the information is not being released because "it poses a great liability" ---- a curious statement.
Rico ---- who did not make the decision but only transmitted it to the public ---- said that identifying the infected farms could cause nosy members of the public to go there, walk on contaminated ground and carry the disease elsewhere.
The opposite is true. With tens of millions of dollars at stake, we trust the public to stay away from infected areas ---- if they know where they are. It's much more likely that the disease could be spread by keeping the public in the dark. People or pets on a family outing might then unknowingly walk on contaminated ground and carry the disease away with them.
The task force has 10 working days to respond to the Times' Open Records Act request, which was filed on Feb. 19. "It's up to our legal department," Rico said.
There is absolutely no reason for the task force to wait another week to release this information. It should be released today.
2/26/03
North County Times, CA
Pet shops wary of Exotic Newcastle disease
KATHRYN GILLICK
Staff Writer
http://www.nctimes.net/news/2003/20030226/50332.html
Although only one pet bird has come down with the deadly Exotic Newcastle disease in San Diego County since the onset in December that has afflicted hundreds of thousands of chickens on North County poultry farms, pet stores aren't taking any chances.
They are taking steps to see that their birds won't have to be destroyed like the multitudes of chickens.
At one of these stores, 4 Feet and Feathers in Escondido, owner Angelique Bennett said that because of the widespread disease ---- which can afflict all birds ---- she imposed a 60-day quarantine after selling all her hand-raised cockatiels and lovebirds during the Christmas season.
"I haven't brought any in for fear about where they come from," she said. Her personal quarantine is almost up, and she said she is debating whether to buy more birds.
It's deadly
Newcastle has a mortality rate of between 90 percent and 100 percent, said Eric Larson, executive director of the San Diego County Farm Bureau, and those birds that survive are often depressed and lethargic. Because of the high death rate, and highly contagious nature of the disease, officials with the Exotic Newcastle Task Force said the best way to contain the disease, which does not affect humans, is to kill all birds who may have been infected.
The task force is a joint effort by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and California Department of Food and Agriculture.
According to the task force, some pet species show only a few signs of the disease, but can spread it to other, more susceptible birds.
A parrot stricken
Task force spokeswoman Leticia Rico said a pet parrot was the only infected "personal use" bird found since the disease was discovered at Sylvester International Farms in Ramona in December. Since then, Newcastle was found at Armstrong Egg Ranch farms on Cole Grade and Lilac roads and also at two other farms, for a total of five infected chicken farms.
The task force refuses to name the farms where the infection has been found. The North County Times discovered the names of the three farms through an independent investigation.
And while the disease has mostly stricken those farms, pet stores are still taking precautions.
Most, such as Free Flight in Del Mar, and Reptile Haven and Exotic Birds in Oceanside, are not clipping wings or toenails any more: too great a risk of infection.
No more boarders
There are more changes, too.
According to Pam Stonebreaker, who co-owns Free Flight with her husband, veterinarian Robert Stonebreaker, the store is no longer taking new bird boarders, even if they have an established relationship with the bird's owner.
"If someone already boards their birds here and then they get a new bird, we can't take that new bird," she said Tuesday.
The store has also stopped taking on new clients and stopped allowing people to donate their birds.
"It's hard because these birds are just going to be dumped," she said.
Expensive pets
Free Flight caters to a high-end bird clientele, selling rare birds such as hyacinth macaws, black palm cockatoos and golden conures. The highest-priced bird in the store goes for $9,000.
As another precaution, the store may put in place a shoe wash or require customers to wear protective booties so that they don't carry germs in, she said.
If the disease continues to spread, she said she would consider temporarily closing the store to protect the birds already there.
"It's very tough," she said. "We're going one stage at a time."
Financially, the store hasn't taken a hit yet, Stonebreaker said, but she said she hasn't looked at February sales yet.
"I'm sure there's a decrease," she said, "but I haven't evaluated it yet."
No touching
Other small bird stores are having to make adjustments since the disease hit San Diego County in late December.
Reptile Haven and Exotic Birds in Oceanside carries several varieties of macaws and cockatoos that range in price from $300 to $8,000. Store owner Chris Estep said that as a precaution he no longer allows customers to handle birds, which he said has upset some shoppers.
The outbreak is also slowing up another business deal, Estep said.
"I bought two hyacinth macaws from a guy in Texas and I've already sold them here in California, but I don't want to bring them into the state," he said.
Room is closed
At a large store, Bird Haven in Escondido, a sign in the window of the bird enclosure Monday afternoon informed customers that they were not allowed to just walk into the glass-walled room anymore because of the risk of Newcastle. The store's owners did not return several phone calls Tuesday.
The major pet chains, Petco Animal Supplies and Petsmart Inc., are also changing the way they deal with birds in the quarantined areas, which include San Diego, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Ventura, Imperial, Santa Barbara, Orange and Riverside counties in California and parts of Nevada and Arizona.
At Petco, which is based in San Diego, spokesman Shawn Underwood said the company has placed warning signs about the disease in each store and also asked customers not to bring their birds into the stores.
Birds are still being sold in the quarantined areas, he said, but only until current stocks run out. They will not be restocked, he said. Although he would not comment on sales, cages at the Escondido store still had birds Tuesday.
He said that animals in general account for about 5 percent of the company's sales.
Petsmart, on the other hand, is continuing to sell birds and to bring in new birds for sale, said spokeswoman Kristin Zimmer, but are giving all bird buyers fact sheets on the disease.
"This is something we're taking very seriously," she said.
Contact staff writer Kathryn Gillick at (760)740-5412 or kgillick@nctimes.com
2/26/03
San Diego Union Tribune, CA
Virus has infected 5 ranches in county
By Elizabeth Fitzsimons
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20030226-9999_6m26new.html
February 26, 2003
Six months ago, when a fatal avian disease was discovered in fighting cocks in Compton in Los Angeles County, state and federal officials began an aggressive campaign to stop what was thought to be an isolated outbreak.
Infected birds – and any possibly exposed to the virus – would be quickly destroyed and buried in landfills.
But cases kept appearing, some of them hundreds of miles apart. So far, 3 million birds have been ordered destroyed at 17 chicken ranches in Southern California, Arizona and Nevada in an effort that has cost more than $35 million.
Containment of exotic Newcastle disease, ominously known as END, seems no closer now than it did six months ago, with announcements of newly infected poultry ranches at times coming one day after another. Despite intensive protection efforts, the virus has infected five of 38 commercial poultry ranches in San Diego County – four in Valley Center and one in Ramona.
The spread of the disease, which is harmless to humans, has some grasping for explanations. Was the outbreak far more widespread than initially suspected? Or could exotic Newcastle be spreading by some elusive means, such as by illegal cockfighting or by wild birds?
Leticia Rico, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Food and Agriculture, suspects the disease had a foothold before it was discovered.
"The disease has been out there. I don't know for how long," Rico said. "The more we looked, the more we found."
Some residents in San Bernardino County have told officials they saw birds dying weeks before exotic Newcastle was detected there. So far, nothing seems to have worked in stopping it.
A case of exotic Newcastle is found about once a year in San Diego County, typically in birds smuggled in from other countries as pets. It had not infected commercial flocks in California for 30 years.
After early finds among backyard birds in October 2002, task force members went door to door in Riverside and San Bernardino counties seeking new cases.
Commercial egg ranches across Southern California locked down their properties, barring all but necessary visitors and practicing careful bio-security measures. They urged their employees not to attend cockfights, or even to visit homes where birds were kept. They sprayed trucks and visitors' shoes with disinfectant.
August Fluegge Jr., who with his father owns ranches in Escondido and Valley Center, divided his egg-processing facility into three areas: dirty, common and clean. Each area has its own color.
The dirty area, marked with black paint, is where racks of unprocessed eggs are assembled. If the racks must be rolled through the common area, painted orange, that area is disinfected. But the racks can never come into the clean area, which is painted white.
Despite the Fluegges' elaborate measures to protect their two operations, their Valley Center ranch of about 55,000 birds tested positive last week for exotic Newcastle. Fluegge declined to discuss any outbreak at his ranch, but agreed to talk about protective measures.
The spread of the disease, despite ranchers' best efforts to safeguard themselves, has some thinking that, ultimately, only so much can be done.
"If I go out of business it's not like I'm going to die," said Joe Cebe, owner of Ramona-based Cebe Farms, which breeds and hatches chickens to be sold live at markets in Los Angeles. "I lie awake at night thinking about it. But what can I do? If that disease is going to get me, it's going to get me."
The failure to contain the virus has Cebe and other ranchers asking a lot more questions of visitors about where they've been – from utility workers to catering-company employees. Cebe compares a truck that has visited an infected ranch to sharing a toothbrush with someone who is sick.
But sharing is hard to avoid. "It's a close industry," said Kerry Mahoney, the county veterinarian. "There's a lot of crossover, and crossover of ownership in different properties."
Eric Larson, executive director of the San Diego County Farm Bureau, said shared practices among commercial poultry ranches have been a problem.
"Equipment moves back and forth between farms, feed trucks move back and forth between farms, inspectors move back and forth between farms," Larson said.
"A grower can control vehicles and can control equipment, but if they're going to be successful, they're going to have a large number of workers come onto their farms everyday and that's an element they can't control."
Some believe the initial spread of exotic Newcastle might have been aided by cockfighting, an illegal sport involving thousands of people across the state.
Cockfighters aren't likely to report diseased or dead birds to their county agriculture department, so exotic Newcastle can spread undetected in that underground community.
"They don't raise these birds to stay on their little parcel. They fight the birds in an organized fight circuit, and they sell birds to other cockfighting enthusiasts," said Wayne Pacelle, a senior vice president with the Humane Society of the United States, which has asked for a federal crackdown on the sport.
"This is an organized criminal network of people who are violating state and federal law. At the major derbies you can see people from a dozen or more states."
Larry Cooper, a state Department of Food and Agriculture spokesman, said last week that about 35 percent of the backyard birds euthanized during the outbreak thus far have been fighting birds.
Task force officials have downplayed the role of wild birds, which are not usually carriers of exotic Newcastle. But some ranchers have become concerned about wild birds feeding on partially digested feed found in manure piles at chicken ranches.
"The disease is live in the manure," said Rico of the Department of Food and Agriculture. "It is a risk. That is why when we find infected facilities we do remove the manure as well as the top layer of the soil."
With the outbreak still uncontrolled, the Zoological Society of San Diego has implemented heightened bio-security measures at both the San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Wild Animal Park, spokeswoman Christina Simmons said.
"The reports we're hearing is that the outbreak is getting more widespread in San Diego County, and as it does it becomes more of a concern," she said.
Vendors, suppliers, the media and others doing business at the zoo have been asked not to use the same vehicles that may have visited poultry facilities, particularly those in Valley Center and Ramona.
The tires of their vehicles are now sprayed with a disinfectant solution when they enter the zoo or animal park, and so are those of any other vehicles that go beyond the public parking areas. This does not apply to the general public.
There have been no discussions about restricting public access to the zoo and park, Simmons said. The only measures taken so far were closing the walk-through aviaries at both facilities to the public in early January.
This latest outbreak of exotic Newcastle disease in commercial chicken flocks has not yet reached the level of the last outbreak, in the early 1970s, when 12 million birds were destroyed and $56 million spent before the virus was eradicated. It took three years to stop that outbreak.
Sarasota Herald-Tribune, FL
Exotic Newcastle Disease detected in another San Diego County flock
The Associated Press
http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20030226&Category=APN&ArtNo=302260742&Ref=AR
Exotic Newcastle disease has been found in another commercial chicken flock in San Diego County, bringing the total of contaminated operations in Southern California to 17.
More than 2.1 million birds have destroyed since the disease was first detected last fall in backyard poultry and pet birds in Los Angeles County. The disease has spread to Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties, prompting a broad quarantine.
Gov. Gray Davis declared a state of emergency last month, releasing money and manpower to combat the disease. Humans are not affected by the disease.
California is the nation's fifth-largest egg producer. About half of the 6 billion eggs produced each year in California come from San Diego and Riverside counties.
The disease so far has been detected in five San Diego County flocks.
The last time Exotic Newscastle disease broke out in California was in the 1970s, when 12 million birds had to be destroyed at a cost of $56 million.
The disease spreads quickly among birds. Signs of the disease in birds include sneezing, coughing, gasping for air, drooping wings, muscular tremors and paralysis.
Last modified: February 26. 2003 10:45AM
AgWeb
2/26/2003
Spread of END to Iowa Would Cost Millions
by Julianne Johnston
http://www.agweb.com/news_show_news_article.asp?file=AgNewsArticle_2003226914_5312&articleID=95630&newscat=GN
Researchers at Iowa State University say if exotic Newcastle disease (END) spreads to the number one egg producing state, it would cost millions. There are about 40 million egg layers in the state. An outbreak of END could result in a loss of $185 million in egg sales.
ISU ag economist John Miranowski says egg production and manufacturing generate over $600 million in sales per year and the industry has a $750 million impact on the Iowa economy. These are upper bound impacts on Iowa if END were to strike Iowa flocks.
The disease has spread from backyard flocks to commercial flocks in California and has been found in Arizona and Nevada.
"It is not probable that exotic Newcastle disease will enter into commercial poultry if bio-security measures are followed," said Don Reynolds, associate dean of Iowa State University's College of Veterinary Medicine.
"The signs vary according to the strain of Newcastle disease and to the species of bird it infects," Reynolds said. For example, in chickens with Newcastle disease, the onset is so sudden that the birds are often found dead with no previous signs of the sickness. Other signs include twisting of the head, difficulty walking, diarrhea, strained breathing and lack of appetite.
Gainesville Times, GA
Slow economy, poor export market is hurting U.S. poultry industry
Poultry Watch
By Chris Hill
http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/news/stories/20030226/localnews/1062274.html
The poultry industry has been slow to rebound like the rest of the economy.
There are several examples of this.
Atlanta-based chicken company Cagle's is eliminating nearly 50 percent of its work force, 550 jobs, at its plant in Pine Mountain Valley northeast of Columbus.
The company, which produces about 11 million pounds of ready-to-cook chicken per week, cites low prices for wholesale chickens and last year's temporary ban Russia placed on U.S. chicken.
The issue with Russia still isn't finished, as their government plans to introduce import quotas on poultry later this year.
Another poultry company, Gold'n Plump Poultry, also is cutting jobs at one of its plants.
The St. Cloud, Minn.-based company, which produces about 5 million pounds of chicken per week, is cutting more than half of its workers in Luverne, Minn.
The company says this effort is designed to "improve efficiency" in their operations.
This last example is untimely as the Midwest Poultry Federation Annual Convention, one of the last poultry industry expositions in the nation, is set to begin March 18 in St. Paul, Minn.
It is about the only poultry trade show of significant size left in the country after the International Poultry Exposition in Atlanta.
And like the Atlanta show, it has seen declines recently in exhibitors and attendees.
The export side of the poultry industry seems to be the weak point.
According to preliminary figures, chicken exports in 2002 were down 16 percent compared to 2001. Chicken exports to Russia, the largest market for U.S. chicken exports, dropped 34 percent.
And this year, exports have been hindered by the outbreak of exotic Newcastle disease in California. Currently, four countries have banned poultry from all of the United States because of the California outbreak. Another 30 countries have placed state or regional bans on U.S. poultry.
But good news may be on the horizon, at least for poultry processing companies.
A USDA economist speaking at the department's Agricultural Outlook Forum last week stated that prices are expected to rise for meat due to anticipated cutbacks in production.
These cutbacks may come as a result of the drop in exports, which leaves more product to be sold domestically.
Chris Hill is editor and production director of Gainesville-based Poultry Times. He can be reached at (770) 536-2476 or chill@poultryandeggnews.com.
Union Democrat, CA
Exotic Newcastle Disease costs soaring
Published: February 25, 2003
By JASON ECK
and The Associated Press
http://www.uniondemocrat.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=10048
LOS ANGELES — Governments have spent more than $35 million and imposed quarantines in three states to stop the spread of a poultry disease that has stripped many farmers of their flocks and forced others to pay high disinfecting costs, industry officials say.
Since October, when Exotic Newcastle Disease was discovered in backyard flocks in Los Angeles County, the federal government has spent $22 million and the state $13 million to pay for operating the Los Alamitos-based task force dealing with the disease, said Larry Cooper of the California Department of Agriculture.
Poultry and egg industries are also drowning in new costs, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture-commissioned study. Those costs include disinfection and biosecurity upgrades and losses in sales and exports.
‘‘Even simple things like disinfecting are beyond the reach of a lot of farmers,'' said Paul Bahan, owner of AAA Egg Farms in Riverside County's San Jacinto Valley. ‘‘We're pretty much running on empty and have been for a while.''
Disinfectant alone costs AAA between $400 and $600 a week, he said.
About 2.1 million birds have been destroyed since the disease was discovered.
Diestel Turkey Ranch near Sonora has already taken steps to increase biosecurity on its ranches, said owner Tim Diestel. The company raises turkeys at its home farm on Lyons-Bald Mountain Road and at four ranches in the La Grange area.
Diestel said his ranch is run with "fairly high" biohazard practices. But, he said, he has taken steps above and beyond the ranch's current practices to protect against Exotic Newcastle Disease.
Diestel requires workers who have direct contact with birds to shower before and after entering a ranch facility. They must wear coveralls over their street clothes and wash their shoes before entering a pen area and again when they leave — a policy the ranch had in place before the Exotic Newcastle Disease reports.
KGTV, CA
Poultry Disease Hits Fifth San Diego Flock
Exotic Newcastle Disease Responsible For Massive Quarantine
http://www.thesandiegochannel.com/news/2004350/detail.html
POSTED: 4:14 p.m. PST February 25, 2003
UPDATED: 4:19 p.m. PST February 25, 2003
SAN DIEGO -- Exotic Newcastle disease has been found in another commercial chicken flock in San Diego County, bringing the total of contaminated operations in Southern California to 17.
More than 2.1 million birds have destroyed since the disease was first detected last fall in backyard poultry and pet birds in Los Angeles County. The disease has spread to Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties, prompting a broad quarantine.
Gov. Gray Davis declared a state of emergency last month, releasing money and manpower to combat the disease. Humans are not affected by the disease.
California is the nation's fifth-largest egg producer. About half of the 6 billion eggs produced each year in California come from San Diego and Riverside counties.
The disease so far has been detected in five San Diego County flocks.
The last time exotic Newscastle disease broke out in California was in the 1970s, when 12 million birds had to be destroyed at a cost of $56 million.
The disease spreads quickly among birds. Signs of the disease in birds include sneezing, coughing, gasping for air, drooping wings, muscular tremors and paralysis.
Press-Enterprise, CA
Another case of Newcastle found in San Diego
02/25/2003
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.pe.com/localnews/statenews/stories/PE.STATE.2003.0225.ap-newcastle.61fb57a.html
VALLEY CENTER -- Exotic Newcastle disease has been found in another commercial chicken flock in San Diego County, bringing the total of contaminated operations in Southern California to 17.
More than 2.1 million birds have destroyed since the disease was first detected last fall in backyard poultry and pet birds in Los Angeles County. The disease has spread to Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties, prompting a broad quarantine.
Gov. Gray Davis declared a state of emergency last month, releasing money and manpower to combat the disease. Humans are not affected by the disease.
California is the nation's fifth-largest egg producer. About half of the 6 billion eggs produced each year in California come from San Diego and Riverside counties.
The disease so far has been detected in five San Diego County flocks.
The last time Exotic Newscastle disease broke out in California was in the 1970s, when 12 million birds had to be destroyed at a cost of $56 million.
The disease spreads quickly among birds. Signs of the disease in birds include sneezing, coughing, gasping for air, drooping wings, muscular tremors and paralysis.
San Diego Union Tribune, CA
ASSOCIATED PRESS
2:45 p.m., February 25, 2003
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/northcounty/20030225-1445-ca-exoticnewcastledisease.html
VALLEY CENTER – Exotic Newcastle disease has been found in another commercial chicken flock in San Diego County, bringing the total of contaminated operations in Southern California to 17.
More than 2.1 million birds have destroyed since the disease was first detected last fall in backyard poultry and pet birds in Los Angeles County. The disease has spread to Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties, prompting a broad quarantine.
Gov. Gray Davis declared a state of emergency last month, releasing money and manpower to combat the disease. Humans are not affected by the disease.
California is the nation's fifth-largest egg producer. About half of the 6 billion eggs produced each year in California come from San Diego and Riverside counties.
The disease so far has been detected in five San Diego County flocks.
The last time Exotic Newscastle disease broke out in California was in the 1970s, when 12 million birds had to be destroyed at a cost of $56 million.
The disease spreads quickly among birds. Signs of the disease in birds include sneezing, coughing, gasping for air, drooping wings, muscular tremors and paralysis.
The Mercury News, CA
Posted on Tue, Feb. 25, 2003
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/5260888.htm
Exotic Newcastle Disease detected in another San Diego County flock
Associated Press
VALLEY CENTER, Calif. - Exotic Newcastle disease has been found in another commercial chicken flock in San Diego County, bringing the total of contaminated operations in Southern California to 17.
More than 2.1 million birds have destroyed since the disease was first detected last fall in backyard poultry and pet birds in Los Angeles County. The disease has spread to Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties, prompting a broad quarantine.
Gov. Gray Davis declared a state of emergency last month, releasing money and manpower to combat the disease. Humans are not affected by the disease.
California is the nation's fifth-largest egg producer. About half of the 6 billion eggs produced each year in California come from San Diego and Riverside counties.
The disease so far has been detected in five San Diego County flocks.
The last time Exotic Newscastle disease broke out in California was in the 1970s, when 12 million birds had to be destroyed at a cost of $56 million.
The disease spreads quickly among birds. Signs of the disease in birds include sneezing, coughing, gasping for air, drooping wings, muscular tremors and paralysis.
Los Angeles Times, CA
February 25, 2003
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/ontario/news/la-ivo-newcastle25feb25,1,4762585.story
Avian disease continues to spread
Inland Valley Voice
By Matthew Chin, Inland Valley Voice
ONTARIO -- A deadly avian disease has spread to an eighth egg ranch in San Bernardino County, authorities said Monday.
The unnamed ranch has about 145,000 birds that will be destroyed, said Leticia Rico, a spokeswoman for the disease eradication task force.
That brings the county's total of euthanized birds to more than 1.8 million. Overall, about 3 million birds have been destroyed since the outbreak was noticed in October.
Seventeen egg ranches in Southern California have been infected with exotic Newcastle disease.
More than 107,000 birds in 1,785 backyards have been destroyed in the campaign to eradicate the disease.
The task force is waiting for federal money to monitor for signs of the disease in the Central Valley, where most of the state's poultry meat industry is located, Rico said.
Rico would not say how much money is expected, but did say funds would be used to check backyards and commercial ranches.
The news was welcomed by the poultry meat industry, said Bill Mattos, executive director of the California Poultry Federation.
"We're not saying we're scared, but we're very, very concerned," Mattos said. "Bio-security is the highest it's ever been."
Mattos said California has 240 million to 250 million chickens and 18 million turkeys.
Task force officials expect an update today on how much it has cost to fight the disease, Rico said.
Estimates earlier this month put the cost at $35 million in state and federal money.
The disease swept through the state in the early 1970s, with 12 million birds destroyed at a cost of $56 million. It took three years to eradicate, Rico said.
The disease does not affect people.
North County Times, CA
Newcastle disease strikes farmers hard
KATHRYN GILLICK
http://www.nctimes.net/news/2003/20030225/50308.html
Staff Writer
VALLEY CENTER ---- Exotic Newcastle disease may strike fear in the hearts of bird lovers everywhere, but it can be argued that no one understands the devastation it can cause better than the chicken farmers ---- Alan Armstrong of Armstrong Egg Ranch in Valley Center is one ----- whose flocks have to be eliminated.
So far, two Armstrong ranches, and approximately 209,000 of their chickens, have fallen victim to the deadly disease.
The young egg rancher spoke with reporters Monday about the impact the disease has had on his business and what effect it might have on the poultry and egg industries.
"It's like a wildfire," Armstrong said.
The Armstrong ranch on Cole Grade Road was confirmed as having Newcastle's in early February. It was the second egg ranch in San Diego County to be hit with the disease after it was discovered at Sylvester International Farms in December.
Only days after the Cole Grade Road farm tested positive, the company's farm on Lilac Road was found to be infected. There, the 69,000 laying hens the company was raising for Fluegge Farms in Escondido were destroyed.
"I'm hopeful that it can be contained," the 27-year-old Armstrong said. "I think the government is doing all it can." The Exotic Newcastle Disease Task Force force is a joint effort by the California Department of Food and Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
A fourth farm, also in Valley Center, was confirmed as having Newcastle disease soon after the Lilac Road farm, but authorities have declined to pinpoint its location. Spokesmen for the task force have repeatedly refused to identify any of the farms. The locations of the first three San Diego County farms were discovered only through independent investigation by the North County Times.
A fifth farm was confirmed on Saturday, and according to a task force spokesperson, the eradication of the 55,000 chickens at that site started over the weekend.
The task force is paying farmers for their chickens, in addition to killing and removing chickens at the infected sites and decontaminating the farms.
Armstrong said the money he was given by the task force for those 209,000 chickens has lessened the financial blow but hasn't taken care of everything.
"They've given us a little bit, but we're shut down," he said. The task force requires farms to wait at least 30 days before bringing chickens back onto a site once the task force has deemed it disease-free. But Armstrong said it will be longer than that before he can get operations going again.
He said that if he places an order for chicks now it will be at least six months before they can be delivered, and abou 40 weeks more before they start laying eggs.
"Hopefully we'll try to get them up before a year, but you never know," he said.
One of the hardest things about losing the more than 140,000 chickens from the Cole Grade farm, he said, was that those birds were about 47 weeks old and just entering a highly productive egg-laying stage.
Shutting down the farms will force Armstrong to lay off about 10 percent of the work force at those two locations, he said.
"It's sad," he said. "I don't want to do this. All my employees are great guys."
Losing the chickens has additional costs for Armstrong. When a laying hen is no longer producing eggs, Armstrong said, he sells it for use in chicken soup. Although it is safe for humans to eat the meat and eggs from chickens with Newcastle's disease, no chickens means no aftermarket.
It's a different story when it comes to the chickens from the Lilac Road farm. Those, he said, were being raised for a local egg processor. Because those chickens contracted the disease and had to be killed, Armstrong said his clients will probably look elsewhere for their laying hens.
It could have long-term effects on his business if producers find other suppliers, he said.
Armstrong wouldn't say how many other farms the company has in Valley Center, but he did say the task force is helping to keep those farms disease-free by providing decontamination spray and dispensers so that farmers can wash the tires and undercarriage of every car and truck entering a ranch.
But that, too, costs the company money despite the state's providing the cleaners.
"It's expensive to pay a guy to stand out here twiddling his thumbs until a car comes along that he has to spray down," he said while standing outside the company's farm on the corner of Lake Wohlford and Paradise Mountain roads.
His family has been raising chickens in Valley Center for over 30 years, he said, and has been in the poultry industry for over 50 years, starting with Armstrong's grandfather.
The family's long history in the industry seems to have braced Armstrong for the most recent outbreak of Newcastle's.
So far, more than 2 million chickens statewide have been killed since the disease was found in Compton in October. The last time Exotic Newcastle broke out in California, 12 million chickens had to be killed at a cost of $56 million.
But what would Armstrong stand to lose if this outbreak proves as drastic?
"I haven't really wanted to look," he said.
The poultry industry has suffered from low prices the last few years, he said, and it was hard for farmers to get loans before Exotic Newcastle, but now, times are even harder.
"It's enough to make you cry, watching your income go out the door," he said.
Countywide, eggs are big business.
Eggs are a $48 million industry in San Diego County, with 101.5 million dozen produced in 2001, said Dolores Brandon, spokeswoman for the county Agriculture, Weights and Measures Department.
Quarantines have been declared in San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Imperial, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. Eggs produced in the quarantined counties cannot be moved from the counties until they are washed and sanitized.
Despite the loss of his chickens and the cost to his business, Armstrong said, Newcastle's is still not the worst thing that has happened to him. That, he said, was the death two years ago of his father, Jerry, at the age of 50.
"We'll get through this," he said.
The mass "depopulation" or killing of chickens at sites where the disease has been found could have an effect on consumers, Armstrong said.
"There was already a 9 million egg deficit in California before (Newcastle's)," he said. "Now there's 11 million."
That could be made worse as the disease infects more farms because more than 9 million of the state's 12 million egg-laying hens are in the quarantine zones
To make up for that, Armstrong said, eggs will probably be shipped in from other parts of the country.
"Consumers won't be able to get California fresh eggs anymore," he said. But, he said, he does not expect the price of eggs in the grocery store to go up.
One way in which the disease has changed the poultry industry, he said, is by forcing farmers to communicate more with each other. Before the outbreak, farmers did not really socialize or share information with each other for a couple of reasons, he said. The first, he said, was the fear of spreading diseases. The second, he said, was the nature of the ranchers, who he jokingly characterized as "grumpy old chicken farmers."
But, the bottom line, he said, is pulling together as an industry and protecting the flocks that are still healthy and eradicating the disease.
"These chicken farmers, if they didn't love these animals, they wouldn't be doing this," he said.
Contact staff writer Kathryn Gillick at (760)740-5412 or kgillick@nctimes.com.
Questions concerning the disease may be answered by calling the California Food and Agriculture Department at (800) 491-1899, or the U.S. Department of Agriculture at (800-940-6524).
2/25/03
High Plains Journal, KS
Tuesday, February 25, 2003 Good Morning!
http://www.hpj.com/testnewstable.cfm?type=story&sid=8261
END Could Cause Loss of Millions in Iowa
If Exotic Newcastle disease (END) were to spread to Iowa and infects Iowa poultry, the impact on the industry -- and on the state's economy -- would be significant, said John Miranowski, an Iowa State University professor of agricultural economics, in an ISU News Service story.
Iowa is the nation's leading producer of eggs. There are about 40 million egg layers in the state, according to the Iowa Poultry Association. An outbreak of END in the state could result in a loss of $185 million in egg sales.
The disease has spread from backyard flocks to commercial flocks in California and has been found in Arizona and Nevada.
END primarily affects birds. It can be passed to other birds through nasal secretions, sneezes or coughs. The disease can cause a number of problems in poultry, ranging from a sudden onset of death in the most dangerous form to coughing and wheezing found in the more mild forms of Newcastle. In laying chickens, milder strains can often decrease egg production. The disease also can infect humans, causing pink eye.
"Egg production and manufacturing generate over $600 million in sales per year and the industry has a $750 million impact on the Iowa economy," Miranowski said. "These are upper bound impacts on Iowa if END were to strike Iowa flocks."
Proper precautions need to be taken to minimize the risks of transmission, he said.
"It is not probable that exotic Newcastle disease will enter into commercial poultry if bio-security measures are followed," said Don Reynolds, associate dean of ISU's College of Veterinary Medicine.
Enterprise-Record, CA
Forest workers called for national projects
http://www.chicoer.com/articles/2003/02/25/news/news94.txt
WILLOWS - Seven Mendocino National Forest employees have been dispatched
along with other California interagency team responders to four national
incidents, including recovery of Space Shuttle Columbia debris in Texas,
suppression of wildfires resulting from the eruption of the Panau Iki
volcano in Hawaii, and helping with the outbreak of Exotic Newcastle Disease
in California poultry populations.
The employees are firefighters and overhead support personnel, and come from
the supervisor's office in Willows and various work stations on the
Grindstone Ranger District.
"We expect to see orders for additional personnel as these incidents
continue," said Dave Sinclear, forest fire management officer.
Riverside Press Enterprise, CA
Date Festival crowds smaller, food sales up
02/25/2003
By BARBARA E. HERNANDEZ
THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE
http://www.pe.com/localnews/stories/PE_NEWS_nafair25.57fc9.html
Attendance at this year's Riverside County Fair and National Date Festival decreased slightly from last year, but officials said beer and food sales were up.
The fair and festival, which ended Sunday, attracted 261,618 attendees this year, down from 264,829 last year and slightly more than 2001's 261,305. About 47,000 people attended the first day of the fair this year.
"When it rained before the fair (in) western Riverside County, I think a lot of people thought it was raining in Indio," said fair board member Linda Thompson. "So they decided not to go."
Thompson said the increase in beer and food sales probably was a sign that those who attended the fair spent more time there.
"I think people stayed longer," she said.
Teresa Gallavan, fair marketing manager, said this year's attendance is in line with previous years.
"I think that's very consistent for us," she said. "We're pleased with the turnout for the fair. We had beautiful weather and great crowds."
Spokeswoman Kimberly Freedman agreed, saying the nice weather helped build good crowds.
Thompson would like to see next year's fair and festival have more bull-riding and more name-recognition acts. This year, the fair and festival featured a camel dairy, deep-fried twinkies and yak races.
The dairy, in east San Diego County, is home to more than a dozen royal dromedary camels. It's the first facility of its kind in the United States and serves as a center for research.
Birds of all kinds were barred from the fair because of the outbreak of exotic Newcastle disease, which also led to the cancellation of the fair's traditional ostrich races.
Only minor incidents were reported at the fair but a shooting death was reported a block away from the fairgrounds. Fair officials declined to comment on the shooting because it did not occur on fair property.
Barbara Hernandez can be reached at (760) 322-4226 or bhernandez@pe.com
Salem Statesman Journal, OR
Mass fowl killings, quarantines lower virus risk in Oregon
State veterinarian says Exotic Newcastle Disease, which affects chicken and other birds, does not harm people.
Staff, news services
February 24, 2003
http://news.statesmanjournal.com/article.cfm?i=57245
With quarantines of infected areas in California and Nevada, the killing of 2.1 million domestic fowl and the disinfecting of poultry operations, the chances of Exotic Newcastle Disease getting to Oregon have been minimized, state officials said.
And the risk to wild populations such as game birds also is low because those birds have less reduced exposure potential.
Domestic fowl such as chickens and turkeys are highly susceptible to the virus.
Infection is spread by contact among infected birds, including the spray from coughing or sneezing birds; through waste from infected birds; or by equipment, people or insects that pick up contaminated materials, according to a fact sheet put out by the California Department of Foot and Agriculture.
Waterfowl such as ducks and geese, are more resistant to the virus.
Symptoms include sneezing, coughing and gasping for air; nasal fluid; greenish, watery diarrhea; tremors, drooping wings, twisting of the head and neck, or paralysis; a drop in egg production and eggs with thinner shells; swelling around the eyes and neck; and sudden death.
“We don’t have Exotic Newcastle in Oregon,” said Dr. Andrew Clark, the state veterinarian. “A very important point is that this is not a disease of public health concern.”
People aren’t affected by Exotic Newcastle, he said. Even in those that have been severely exposed to the virus, the only symptom was a mild eye irritation, he said.
Game birds such as pheasants and partridges “are right up there with chickens as far as susceptibility,” said Brad LeaMaster, a field veterinarian with the Oregon Department of Agriculture.
But odds of cross transmission among birds in the wild isn’t as great as poultry confined in enclosed pens.
“The distribution factor is a very important part of the consideration,” Clark said. “Although wild birds get the disease, they drop dead alone out in the woods, and nobody sees them.”
Exotic Newcastle Disease has appeared in backyard flocks and eight commercial operations in California; in a backyard flock in La Paz County, Ariz.; and in a backyard flock in Las Vegas.
Quarantines have been established in eight Southern California counties, in Clark and Nye counties in Nevada, and one is being developed for Arizona.
With the quarantine of shipments of birds, feathers, meat, manure — anything that could cause potential virus spread — the odds of spread to the Oregon poultry industry have been greatly reduced.
“With the rules put into place to control bird movement, there’s probably a very low risk,” Clark said.
And with so much else on the plate, the minimal threat that the virus poses to wild birds in Oregon isn’t even on the radar at the Department of Fish and Wildlife, said Brad Bales, the department’s game bird program leader.
The worst fears about Exotic Newcastle:
Illegal importation of an infected bird or birds.
For chickens, that probably would mean smuggling for illegal activities such as cockfighting.
For other birds, it could mean importation of pet birds from an infected area by someone moving to Oregon.
A veterinary check is required for such birds.
The longest shot of all: Someone bringing the virus in the tread of their boots or tires after a visit to an infected area.
“The virus does survive off the host,” said Clark. “The virus likes cool and moist days.”
Dry and hot, with lots of sunshine, and it dies quickly.
KNSD, CA
Local Farm May Be Infected With Deadly Poultry Disease
More Than $35 Million Spent In Fight Against Exotic Newcastle Disease
http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/1998652/detail.html
POSTED: 3:54 p.m. PST February 23, 2003
VALLEY CENTER, Calif. -- A chicken farm in northern San Diego county may have been infected by a deadly poultry disease.
Officials from the county Farm Bureau say the outbreak of exotic Newcastle disease may have occurred in a Valley Center farm, but were unable to pinpoint the farm's location. If confirmed, it would be the fifth infected chicken farm in the county.
Thousands of chickens have already been slaughtered in Valley Center as local and state officials try to stamp out the disease which was first discovered in October.
The federal and state governments have spent more than $35 million and imposed quarantines in three states to stop the spread of the disease. The costs include operating a task force dealing with the disease, disinfection and bio-security upgrades.
About two million birds have been destroyed since the disease was discovered.
Antelope Valley Press, CA
Exotic Newcastle disease strikes again
This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press Sunday, February 23, 2003.
By HEATHER LAKE
Valley Press Staff Writer
http://www.avpress.com/n/susty1.hts
LITTLEROCK - Amalia Piceno nervously fingered a bush outside her Littlerock home, fighting back tears of heartbreak after her family's entire bird population was wiped out Friday, some of them by a .22-caliber rifle, as part of the effort to eradicate the deadly exotic Newcastle disease in Southern California.
Piceno said Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies ushered her into her home to spare her from seeing a pet peacock shot out of a tree - one of the END task force's methods of depopulating sickly or threatened bird flocks.
Piceno's is one of many properties in the Littlerock area targeted for depopulation, and one of six on Friday alone.
After being turned away on several occasions by her husband, Gabriel, the task force turned out again Friday, this time with a warrant and sheriff's deputies.
By late Friday every chicken, peacock, turkey, duck and pigeon had been destroyed by a tight-lipped band of task force members deferring to a public information officer for answers.
Donning white Tyvek sanitation suits and blue rubber gloves, the crews pulled up to the property unannounced in Enterprise rental trucks and pickup trucks Friday. Piceno called her husband at work, who finally relented and told her "not to cry."
Palmdale sheriff's Deputy Mark Machanic said there was a certain demographic area determined to be infected or a dangerous contact area, and all properties in that radius will be depopulated. He could not say what the boundaries of the area were.
Piceno didn't fully understand what was going on and doesn't believe any of her birds were sick.
"Is it legal?" she asked.
Her husband didn't believe his birds were sick, either, but Machanic said he saw a couple of chickens that were unmistakably ill.
The symptoms of exotic Newcastle disease include watery eyes, diarrhea, depression, salivating and other flu-like symptoms. Once afflicted with the disease, death is imminent. Birds that are sick or considered to be in a "dangerous contact" range are being euthanized whether they test positive or not, a chore that has been taxing for some task force members.
"None of them are enjoying doing this … but it's a necessary evil," said Machanic of the task force members, who he has seen on the brink of tears in some cases in having to euthanize people's pets, he said.
While exotic Newcastle disease poses minimal threat to humans or other animals, it is a great threat to the poultry industry.
Piceno said her husband is "mad."
Holding an invoice in her hand, Piceno showed that they would be reimbursed nearly $1,300 for her birds, but she said her husband doesn't care about the money - it can't replace his oldest peacock, Fundango, father of the rest of the now-deceased flock.
Exotic Newcastle disease is spreading like wildfire through Littlerock, perpetuated in part by fearful bird owners who wait too long to call about sick birds or don't call at all. Piceno said she had never heard of the disease and didn't know there had been a public meeting about it. Her daughter Juliana, 8, had heard a little about it in school. Juliana wondered about the other animals, her big brown eyes sad and confused.
Gabriel Jr., 13, had fed the peacocks before he headed off to school Friday morning. When he got home, every last bird was gone, many of the trucks had pulled away and members of the California Conservation Corps were demolishing the structures that had been home to his pet turkeys Thelma and Louise.
Gabriel is confused by the invoice that states one game breeding cock was part of the population. He said he had three and that all were alive and well when he left for school that morning.
The Picenos' story is not unique, and neither is their reaction. Throughout Littlerock and around the Valley, public meetings have brought out people devastated, angry and confused - afraid their property and their pets might be next.
Task force members have been pleading for the public's assistance in the eradication effort of the disease, which first surfaced in Southern California in October and has resulted in the deaths of more than 2 million birds throughout this part of the state and beyond.
Experts say without the help of bird owners, the disease will continue to spread. Already, areas in Nevada and Arizona have become contaminated by the disease some experts believe came to the United States from Mexico.
North County Times, CA
Exotic Newcastle costs in the millions
KATHRYN GILLICK
Staff Writer
http://www.nctimes.net/news/2003/20030223/54619.html
VALLEY CENTER ---- Thousands upon thousands chickens were slaughtered at ranches in Valley Center on Friday as growers, San Diego County and the state of California sought to stamp out the deadly avian illness known as Exotic Newcastle.
A fifth farm is suspected to have the disease, said Eric Larson, executive director of the San Diego County Farm Bureau, adding to the list of four previously announced infected farms.
Larson said the latest suspected farm is also in Valley Center but that he was unable to pinpoint this location or any of the others that have been confirmed to be infected since the disease was discovered in the county.
At one Valley Center ranch Friday, employees could be seen dumping already dead chickens into a mulcher. A reporter was able to walk onto ranch property and up to the site where the chickens were being shredded, but employees there said that no one on the premises had the authority to talk to the press.
George Wilgenburg, son of the ranch's owner, Bill Wilgenburg, said the chickens had not tested positive for Newcastle's but were being killed because the family had sold the farm, Valley Center Egg Ranch. He said that because of its proximity to a ranch that has the disease they could not move their chickens from the quarantine area.
"We need to be out of that ranch," Wilgenburg said, "and they (the state's Exotic Newcastle Task Force) said 'you cannot take anything out of that ranch because you are so close to where it has been tested (positive).'"
He said the ranch's 45,000 chickens were put to death by having their necks wrung, then put through the mulcher. State officials were expected to take the mulch away.
At another ranch, men in white suits stood near large plastic containers filled with liquid they said was decontamination spray. They said their job was to spray down vehicles going in and out of the farm, including the vehicles they said were carting off dead chickens.
It could not be determined if any of the ranches at which activity could be observed from the road were among the four thus far identified --- but not pinpointed ----- by the task force.
The North County Times has previously filed Freedom of Information applications with county, state and federal officials to learn the names and addresses of the third and fourth ranches. None has been responded to. Officials have withheld the names of the third and fourth on the ground that such identification would bring hordes of motorists and gawkers to the region.
They refused, too, to identify the fifth, but said the policy on withholding information was "under review."
The first and second ranches were identified early on by the North County Times. They are Sylvester International Farms in Ramona, where 85,000 chickens were killed, and Armstrong Egg Ranch on Cole Grade Road, where officials are in the process of killing 150,000 birds.
Officials said the disease, which is transmitted through the feces or mucus of sick birds, spreads so quickly that all chickens at a ranch must be killed to keep others from being infected. Symptoms of the disease include sneezing, coughing, muscle spasms and drooping wings.
The disease does not affect humans, the farm bureau's Larson said.
Attempts over the last few days to contact owners of poultry ranches thought to be Numbers 3 and 4 were unavailing. Officials issued the standard refusals.
Neither state nor federal officials returned calls concerning the fifth ranch.
But chicken-wise neighbors in the region pointed to several ranches they thought might be the two. Among the neighbors was August Fluegge Jr., owner of Fluegge Egg Ranch in Escondido, who said he was the principal customer at one ranch, which he identified, and that 69,000 chickens slaughtered there "were mine." The North County Times is withholding the name because it has not been able to independently confirm Fluegge's assertion.
"Those birds were supposed to go to this ranch and start laying eggs," he said Friday.
North County is the heart of San Diego County's chicken industry, with most of the county's poultry ranches situated here. And it is here that the disease has hit the hardest.
In Valley Center last week, chicken ranches seemed on alert: Decontamination spray placed at every gate was a reminder of just some of the safety precautions and business adjustments chicken farmers are making, and unexpected visitors were met with hesitation if not outright hostility.
At the Armstrong Cole Grade Road ranch, the Newcastle decontamination process, which is headed up by the state's task force, was still under way, but the exact activities were not easily observed through the metal fence surrounding the farm.
It was unclear if any other ranchers were taking precautions as extreme as those taken at Valley Egg Ranch. But there, the piles of mulched chicken remains, which were covered in old chicken manure, were striking reminders of the impact this disease could have on the county's poultry industry.
So far, only 454,000 of the county's 4.5 million chickens have been killed. If this continues, however, the local industry could see a repeat of the widespread losses incurred when the disease last hit the state in the 1970s.
During that outbreak, approximately 12 million birds were killed statewide at a cost of about $56 million.
The most recent outbreak has prompted the state to quarantine chickens in San Diego, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Orange, Riverside, Ventura, Santa Barbara and Imperial counties. Governor Gray Davis declared a state of emergency over the disease in early January.
So far, according to task force spokesman Cooper, the outbreak has cost the state $12 million and cost the federal government $23 million. That includes the price of running the task force, killing and burying the birds, and reimbursing farmers for infected flocks.
Contact staff writer Kathryn Gillick at (760)740-5412 or kgillick@nctimes.com
2/23/03
Los Angeles Times, CA
Shelters restrict bird adoptions
Measures put in place to help control outbreak of exotic Newcastle disease.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/ontario/news/la-ivo-newcastle22feb22,1,2993107.story
By Buck Wargo, Inland Valley Voice
The outbreak of exotic Newcastle disease has prompted area animal shelters to euthanize recovered fowl to keep the disease from spreading.
For the last three weeks, the Inland Valley Humane Society in Pomona has stopped adopting out chickens, ducks and geese that are captured or brought in to the facility, spokesman Brian Sampson said. The birds are being turned over to state health officials for disposal.
The San Bernardino County animal shelter in Devore has turned over nine ducks and six chickens to state officials to be destroyed, said John Papp, supervisor of shelter services for the county.
Papp said the shelter, under quarantine, has had at least four known positive tests for the disease. No birds of any kind are allowed to leave the facility at this time.
A pet ostrich at the shelter has been kept in isolation and hasn't contracted the disease, Papp said.
In Pomona, Sampson said the shelter is taking direction from Los Angeles County officials in no longer adopting out fowl to reduce the risk of spreading the disease. Once the quarantine is lifted, the practice will probably resume, he said.
"It's a precautionary measure because we don't know for sure where they came from," Sampson said. "We don't want to put a sick bird back out there."
If a canary or house bird is found, the pet would be quarantined, and if it shows no symptoms of the disease, it would be placed in a home, Sampson said.
Pet birds at shelters where outbreaks of the disease occur or that are kept in areas near outbreaks may never make it to homes.
"We want to minimize that there is any exposure to the virus," Cooper said.
More than 2 million birds have been destroyed since the outbreak was discovered in backyard flocks in Los Angeles County.
Public agencies have spent more than $35 million to stop the spread of the disease, said Larry Cooper, a spokesman for the disease task force. The state has spent $13 million and the federal government $22 million.
The outbreak prompted the Humane Society of the United States on Thursday to call on Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman to crack down on the cockfighting industry, blaming it for the outbreak of the disease.
The group supports imposing felony-level penalties for violations of law against animal fighting.
Sampson said a crackdown on cockfighting would be a wise move in light of the outbreak of the disease. During a recent response to a cockfight in the dairy preserve area near Ontario and Chino, San Bernardino County officials found a dead rooster with Newcastle disease.
Sampson said people who work at farms could have come in contact with infected birds outside of work and spread the disease.
"It is not a very controlled environment. There is not a lot of sanitation, and there is a lot of transportation of these birds," Sampson said.
Another Newcastle outbreak was confirmed in San Diego County, Cooper said.
San Bernardino Sun, CA
Article Last Updated: Saturday, February 22, 2003 - 10:26:47 PM PST
Newcastle virus found at Ontario ranch
http://www.dailybulletin.com/Stories/0,1413,203~21481~1198426,00.html
ONTARIO — The virus that causes the deadly exotic Newcastle disease has been detected at a commercial poultry ranch in Ontario, officials said Saturday.
The discovery of the virus at the Ontario facility -- which officials did not identify by name -- and another commercial facility in Valley Center in San Diego County brings the number of commercial ranches affected by Newcastle to 17, health officials said in a press release Saturday.
So far, 2.25 million birds at commercial ranches have been killed in an effort to stop the spread of the disease, which is almost always fatal to birds but poses no health hazard to humans. In addition, more than 645,000 birds are in the process of being slaughtered, officials said.
- David Bradvica, (909) 483-9318
Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, CA
Article Last Updated: Saturday, February 22, 2003 - 10:25:07 PM PST
Police raid suspected cockfighting site
By Michael Del Muro , Staff Writer
http://www.whittierdailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,207~12026~1198433,00.html
MONTEBELLO -- Law enforcement officials on Saturday broke up what they said was going to be an illegal cockfight, but could not remove more than 150 roosters due to a quarantine that prevents birds from leaving the area.
Nearly 50 people were at the property in the 300 block of Bluff Road, just west of the Rio Hondo River, when Montebello police arrived. There were no arrests.
The home had chicken and rooster coops. People said they were going to have a barbecue, but most fled soon after police arrived. The property owner let officers inspect the area.
The Southeast Area Animal Control Authority and police searched the property and found more than 150 roosters, most with their waddles and claws cut off and their spurs sharpened signs of cockfighting, officials said.
Officers also found what they suspect to be a fighting ring.
However, SEAACA agents found no injured or scarred birds.
"From the reports, they were most definitely preparing for a (cock)fight,' SEAACA Capt. Aaron Reyes said.
Reyes said the area is notorious for cockfighting, which is illegal in California.
Last December, officers raided a neighboring house on Bluff Road and found roosters fighting.
It was discovered the birds were infected with Exotic Newcastle disease, a virus that infects and kills birds, and a quarantine was placed on the neighborhood.
U.S. Department of Agriculture agents were called Saturday and would not allow any birds to be brought in or removed from the area.
Because police did not catch the birds fighting or find injured roosters, the only violation that could be enforced is the breaking of the quarantine, Reyes said.
This could result in a mixture of fines and probation. The investigation is continuing. SEAACA, USDA and California Department of Food and Agriculture will monitor the birds, officials said.
-- Michael Del Muro can be reached at (562) 698-0955, Ext. 3050, or by e-mail at michael.delmuro@sgvn.com .
Omaha World Herald, NE
Published Sunday
February 23, 2003
Disease ravages chicken producers
http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_np=0&u_pg=46&u_sid=660582
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Governments have spent more than $35 million and imposed quarantines in three states to stop the spread of a poultry disease that has stripped many farmers of their flocks and forced others to pay high disinfecting costs, industry officials say.
Since October, when the disease was discovered in backyard flocks in Los Angeles County, the federal government has spent $22 million and the state $13 million to pay for operating the Los Alamitos-based task force dealing with exotic Newcastle disease, said Larry Cooper of the California Department of Agriculture.
The poultry and egg industries are also drowning in new costs, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture-commissioned study. Those costs include disinfection and biosecurity upgrades and losses in sales and exports.
"Even simple things, like disinfecting, are beyond the reach of a lot of farmers," said Paul Bahan, owner of AAA Egg Farms in Riverside County's San Jacinto Valley.
Disinfectant alone is costing AAA between $400 and $600 a week, he said.
About 2.1 million birds have been destroyed since the disease was discovered.
Gov. Gray Davis and the USDA declared states of emergency last month across Southern California and expanded the quarantine zone for the disease.
The quarantine prohibits the movement of all poultry, poultry products and nesting materials in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Bernardino, Riverside, Orange, San Diego and Imperial Counties without a USDA permit. The outbreak also has spread to Arizona and Nevada.
The disease, which does not affect humans, is spread primarily through direct contact between healthy birds and the bodily discharges of infected birds.
The last California outbreak, in the early 1970s, cost U.S. poultry and egg supply companies and taxpayers $56 million, according to the USDA. It affected more than 1,300 flocks and 12 million birds.
Russia, Canada and Mexico all have banned poultry and egg imports from the three infected states. Producers outside the quarantine areas are feeling the squeeze.
Metzer Farms, a duck and goose hatchery in central California, has not been able to export internationally since November. The hatchery relied on Los Angeles International Airport to ship its live birds but can no longer use it because it is within the quarantine area.
The Press Enterprise - CA
San Bernardino Edition
Gamecock Crackdown Demanded
February 22, 2003
NOT ONLINE - Scanned
(LINK)
Arizona Daily Sun, AZ
Ostrich festival will lack its main attraction
02/22/2003
http://www.azdailysun.com/non_sec/nav_includes/story.cfm?storyID=60140
PHOENIX (AP) -- Organizers of the annual Chandler Ostrich Festival announced that this year's event will be without live ostriches.
For the first time in 15 years, the festival will lack its signature ostrich races, which previously featured jockeys riding atop the animals.
Fears about the spread of Exotic Newcastle Disease caused state officials on Feb. 11 to ban bird events such as exhibitions or competitions.
"It couldn't have been worse timing," Ron Adams, chairman of the Ostrich Festival was quoted as saying in a release. "Unfortunately it's out of our control. We felt in the interest of public safety and to protect the health of the birds, we should cancel all ostrich attractions."
Instead, the March 7-9 event will feature camel and pig races, along with an exotic animal petting zoo, said Sherry Brown of Brown's Amusements, which will operate the show. It also features rock bands Grand Funk Railroad and America.
San Diego Union Tribune, CA
Poultry ranches use wood chippers to kill thousands of chickens
By Elizabeth Fitzsimons
STAFF WRITER
February 22, 2003
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/northcounty/20030222-9999_1mi22chipjum.html
Workers at poultry ranches in Valley Center and Potrero have been throwing thousands of live chickens into wood chippers to thin their flocks, animal control officers discovered this week.
Neither of the farms, owned by Ward Egg Ranch, had been infected with exotic Newcastle, a deadly avian virus that has struck 16 Southern California poultry ranches. Workers told authorities they were destroying old, unproductive hens and were following the advice of veterinarians affiliated with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
"The magnitude of the suffering is enormous, and it's matched only by the magnitude of the stupidity and the callousness," said Wayne Pacelle, a senior vice president of the Humane Society of the United States.
Messages left at Ward Egg Ranch were not returned. A woman who answered the phone last night said the ranch was not commenting.
The San Diego County Department of Animal Services is continuing to investigate, said Lauren Joniaux, regional director for the South County shelter in Bonita.
"This was absolutely not an approved method of euthanasia on these animals," said animal control Lt. Mary Kay Gagliardo.
She and others with the animal services department said they had never heard of destroying animals in a wood chipper. However, a spokesman for the USDA said the practice has been considered by some in the poultry industry to depopulate their flocks.
Thirty-thousand chickens were destroyed at the Valley Center ranch on Fruitvale Road, Gagliardo said. She said most of the birds were alive when thrown in the chipper. At the Potrero ranch, on state Route 94 in the southeastern part of the county, it was unclear how many birds had been destroyed, Joniaux said.
Ranches typically destroy birds by gassing them or breaking their necks.
One worker at the Potrero ranch told an investigator that their arms had gotten tired from breaking the chickens' necks, so they threw them into the machinery, Gagliardo said.
Gagliardo said she was referred by a ranch foreman to a veterinarian, Gregg Cutler.
Cutler told her he directed the ranch to use the chipper, and it was "humane because it was immediate and painless. And he absolutely stands by it still," Gagliardo said.
Gagliardo said Cutler told her he was also an epidemiologist and a consultant to the USDA.
When reached yesterday, Cutler said he had no idea what the ranches were doing, and he had no affiliation with the USDA.
"I just choose not to discuss anything," Cutler said.
A Valley Center resident tipped off Animal Services to the case, Gagliardo said. Investigators visited the Valley Center ranch Thursday and, after learning of its connection to the Potrero site, visited there, too.
Gagliardo said the ranches were planning to use the chicken remains for fertilizer. The Valley Center ranch is near ranches infected with exotic Newcastle disease.
At ranches were the disease has been detected, state and federal officials always euthanize the birds with carbon dioxide, said Larry Hawkins, a USDA spokesman. He said the shredding of the birds did not pose a threat of spreading the disease because they had not contracted it.
Elizabeth Fitzsimons:
(760) 752-6743; elizabeth.fitzsimons@uniontrib.com
San Diego Union Tribune, CA
Wood chippers used to reduce flocks at two poultry ranches
Thousands of birds killed in machines
By Elizabeth Fitzsimons
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20030222-9999_2m22chip.html
February 22, 2003
Workers at poultry ranches in Valley Center and Potrero have been throwing thousands of live chickens into wood chippers to thin their flocks, animal control officers discovered this week.
Neither of the farms, owned by Ward Egg Ranch, had been infected with exotic Newcastle, a deadly avian virus that has struck 16 Southern California poultry ranches. Workers told authorities they were destroying old, unproductive hens and were following the advice of veterinarians affiliated with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
"The magnitude of the suffering is enormous, and it's matched only by the magnitude of the stupidity and the callousness," said Wayne Pacelle, a senior vice president of the Humane Society of the United States.
Messages left at Ward Egg Ranch were not returned. A woman who answered the phone last night said the ranch was not commenting.
The San Diego County Department of Animal Services is continuing to investigate, said Lauren Joniaux, regional director for the South County shelter in Bonita.
"This was absolutely not an approved method of euthanasia on these animals," said animal control Lt. Mary Kay Gagliardo.
She and others with the animal services department said they had never heard of destroying animals in a wood chipper. However, a spokesman for the USDA said the practice has been considered by some in the poultry industry to depopulate their flocks.
Thirty thousand chickens were destroyed at the Valley Center ranch on Fruitvale Road, Gagliardo said. She said most of the birds were alive when thrown in the chipper. At the Potrero ranch, on state Route 94 in the southeastern part of the county, it was unclear how many birds had been destroyed, Joniaux said.
Ranches typically destroy birds by gassing them or breaking their necks.
One worker at the Potrero ranch told an investigator that their arms had gotten tired from breaking the chickens' necks, so they threw them into the machinery, Gagliardo said.
Gagliardo said she was referred by a ranch foreman to a veterinarian, Gregg Cutler.
Cutler told her he directed the ranch to use the chipper, and it was "humane because it was immediate and painless. And he absolutely stands by it still," Gagliardo said.
Gagliardo said Cutler told her he was also an epidemiologist and a consultant to the USDA.
When reached yesterday, Cutler said he had no idea what the ranches were doing, and he had no affiliation with the USDA.
"I just choose not to discuss anything," Cutler said.
A Valley Center resident tipped off Animal Services to the case, Gagliardo said. Investigators visited the Valley Center ranch Thursday and, after learning of its connection to the Potrero site, visited there, too.
Gagliardo said the ranches were planning to use the chicken remains for fertilizer. The Valley Center ranch is near ranches infected with exotic Newcastle disease.
At ranches were the disease has been detected, state and federal officials always euthanize the birds with carbon dioxide, said Larry Hawkins, a USDA spokesman. He said the shredding of the birds did not pose a threat of spreading the disease because they had not contracted it.
Elizabeth Fitzsimons:
(760) 752-6743; elizabeth.fitzsimons@uniontrib.com
Arizona Republic, AZ
An ostrich-less ostrich fest?
Avian virus prevents use of birds at event
You won't see this fellow kicking around at this year's Chandler Ostrich Festival.
By Edythe Jensen and Betty Beard
The Arizona Republic
Feb. 22, 2003
http://www.arizonarepublic.com/arizona/articles/0222ostrich.html
Ostriches can't fly, and this year they can't even run in the 15th annual Chandler Ostrich Festival.
Just two weeks before the March 7-9 festival that normally features jockeys riding atop the gangly animals, promoters had to declare "no ostriches allowed" because Newcastle virus fears prompted a state ban on bird-related events.
"Even though there will be no live ostriches, we will demonstrate the ostrich theme . . . with shirts, hats, a parade," said Ron Adams, chairman of the festival.
The Arizona Agriculture Department on Feb. 11 banned any exhibits, shows, auctions or competitions involving any type of birds in the state, causing festival promoters to scramble for substitute animals.
The ostrich-less festival will instead feature races with camels, water buffaloes, brahma bulls, yaks, African zebus, llamas, alpacas, horses and zebras. It also will feature the rock bands America and Grand Funk Railroad. It's being held for the first time at the city's new Tumbleweed Park.
Customers will still be able to buy ostrich burgers, as the processed meat is safe for humans, the Agriculture Department says.
The highly contagious Newcastle disease doesn't hurt humans but kills birds and poultry. More than 2 million animals have been euthanized in California and about 2,000 in Nevada in attempts to stop the disease from spreading to Arizona. But the disease was found about two weeks ago in a backyard flock on the Colorado River Indian Tribes' reservation in western Arizona.
"I'm sure folks will get upset, but there's much more at stake than a weekend festival," said Neil Schneider, a spokesman for the Arizona Farm Bureau. He said the disease may be spreading because of underground cockfights.
KFMB, CA
NEWCASTLE DISEASE FOUND ON ANOTHER RANCH
http://www.kfmb.com/topstory13935.html
(02-21-2003) - Another San Diego County poultry ranch has been found to be infected with the exotic Newcastle disease.
That means 95,000 chickens will have to be destroyed. The identity of the ranch is not being disclosed. So far, 15 ranches in Southern California have been affected, including four in San Diego County.
Newcastle disease is harmless to humans, but deadly to chickens and it spreads quickly so infected chickens have to be killed.
Union Tribune, CA
Fourth poultry ranch infected with Newcastle
Humane Society asks cockfighting crackdown
By Elizabeth Fitzsimons
STAFF WRITER
February 21, 2003
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/uniontrib/fri/metro/news_1mi21fourth.html
Tests yesterday confirmed that yet another North County poultry ranch is infected with exotic Newcastle disease, and the Humane Society of the United States is urging a crackdown on cockfighting, which some believe is at the root of the outbreak.
Larry Cooper, spokesman for the state Department of Food and Agriculture, said about 95,000 chickens will be destroyed as a result of the newest infection, the fourth commercial flock in the county to be hit.
He would not identify the ranch, but said it was near two others that recently tested positive for the virus.
Those two ranches, both in Valley Center, are owned by Armstrong Farms.
State and federal workers with the Exotic Newcastle Disease Task Force spent days euthanizing a flock of 150,000 birds at one ranch.
At the other, Armstrong Farms was raising about 69,000 pullets, or young birds, for a local egg producer, ranch owner Alan Armstrong said. They also were ordered destroyed.
"It's so sad to see this happen," Armstrong said. "We're doing everything we can to keep it from spreading."
Exotic Newcastle, harmless to humans but deadly to all types of birds, has now infected 15 commercial poultry ranches in Southern California.
In Washington yesterday, the Humane Society of the United States sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman, asking that her department aggressively enforce a ban, scheduled to take effect in May, on importing, exporting or transporting fighting birds across state lines.
Aggressive enforcement, including the arrests of people engaged in cockfighting, might prevent future outbreaks of exotic Newcastle, wrote Wayne Pacelle, a senior vice president with the society.
The outbreak was first confirmed in October among backyard birds in Los Angeles County that were suspected of being fighting cocks.
About 35 percent of the nearly 102,000 backyard birds destroyed so far by the task force have been classified as fighting birds.
It is not illegal to own fighting cocks, but it is illegal to fight them.
There has been concern among task force officials about such birds being moved in and out of the quarantined areas.
"More and more of the evidence is pointing to cockfighting as the origin of the outbreak," Pacelle said in an interview yesterday.
"When you look at the costs of the containment and compensations, we're talking tens of millions and it may go to hundreds of millions. Should we be treating the symptom or getting at the root cause?"
The USDA is reimbursing owners for birds that are destroyed.
Pacelle said that in some cases, the agency was compensating the owners of fighting birds, which are specially bred and expensive, at the rate of $1,000 to $1,500 per bird.
He said the payments were a waste of money, and that the USDA should not compensate people for fighting cocks when it is illegal in California to sell a bird for fighting purposes.
Cooper, of the state agriculture department, said, "I do know that we are paying fair market value, and that is determined by an appraiser."
It has been the policy of the state and federal Exotic Newcastle Disease Task Force not to release the names or addresses of infected ranches. But the policy, which has drawn complaints from the media, is being discussed by officials, Cooper said.
The task force also corrected its tabulation of backyard cases of exotic Newcastle in San Diego County. There has been only one case in pet birds, not three. The higher number was an error in documentation, Cooper said.
Elizabeth Fitzsimons:
(760) 752-6743; elizabeth.fitzsimons@uniontrib.com
North County Times, CA
Exotic Newcastle confirmed at fourth ranch
KATHRYN GILLICK
Staff Writer
http://www.nctimes.net/news/2003/20030221/45858.html
State officials said Thursday that a fourth ranch has been discovered to have the deadly Exotic Newcastle disease that afflicts chickens. The ranch, which has 95,000 birds, is believed to be in Valley Center, but officials would not pinpoint it.
"It's just real disappointing that this thing marches on," said Eric Larson, executive director of the San Diego County Farm Bureau.
The disease was first found at Sylvester International Farms on Old Julian Highway in Ramona in late December. There, 85,000 birds were killed.
The next infections were not found until February, when it was discovered at Armstrong Egg Ranch on Cole Grade Road in Valley Center. There, 150,000 birds were killed. Exotic Newcastle was found a few days later at a third ranch, also said to be in Valley Center, where all 69,000 chickens will be killed. The names of the last two ranches have not been divulged.
Larry Cooper, spokesman for the state's Exotic Newcastle Disease Task Force, said again Thursday that the task force was not releasing the locations of the farms out of fear that people curious about the cleanup efforts will visit the farms and further spread the disease. This "policy" decision is being challenged by the North County Times, which was able to get the names of the first two on its own.
Officials said the disease, which is transmitted through the feces or mucus of sick birds, spreads so quickly that all chickens at a ranch must be killed to keep others from being infected. Symptoms of the disease include sneezing, coughing, muscle spasms and drooping wings.
Each of the farms where the virus is found must go through a state decontamination process. At the Armstrong Ranch on Thursday morning, that process was still under way, with several state workers wearing white protective suits and cleaning out contaminated material.
The disease affects all species of birds but is not harmful to humans, said the farm bureau's Larson.
More than 2.2 million commercial birds and 100,000 noncommercial birds have been euthanized since the disease was discovered in Compton in October, threatening the state's $3 billion poultry industry.
The newest discovery brings the number of commercial chickens to be killed in San Diego County to 454,000. Task force spokesman Cooper said he could confirm only one noncommercial bird in the area that was found to have Newcastle's.
The farm bureau's Larson said that although the disease hasn't caused too much damage to the county's poultry industry so far, it is too early to know the full impact.
There are 37 poultry ranches in San Diego County, 27 of which are egg-raising facilities. The ranches had 4.5 million chickens before the outbreak of Exotic Newcastle, according to San Diego County Agriculture Commissioner Kathleen Thuner.
Eggs are a $48 million industry in San Diego County, with 101.5 million dozens produced last year, said Dolores Brandon, spokeswoman for the county Agriculture, Weights and Measures Department.
To really assess the damage to the local economy, Larson said: "What we need is a period of time when we have no more finds and we can start to believe that it's under containment, but that just hasn't happened. We're always waiting for another shoe to drop."
About $35 million has been spent on quarantine and eradication efforts, said the task force's Cooper. That includes the price of destroying the birds, which is done at the ranch where they are discovered, and transporting the carcasses to nearby dumps. It also includes the price of operating the task force, which is based in Garden Grove and employs 1,327 people.
Quarantines have been issued in San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Imperial, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. Eggs produced in the quarantined counties cannot be moved from the counties until they are washed and sanitized.
More than 9 million of the state's 12 million egg-laying hens are in the quarantine zones.
The task force tests birds from commercial ranches once a week, Cooper said, but according to San Diego County veterinarian Kerry Mahoney, it is also trying to establish a program to test every site that has birds.
Mahoney said officials have been trying to work out the details of a county surveillance since December, but negotiations over cost have slowed its progress.
At the county laboratory in Kearny Mesa, veterinarian Alfonso Gaujardo said Newcastle's testing has been going on for years. With each bird autopsy the lab does, it tests for the disease. He said no birds have tested positive since the outbreak in December.
"We're not actively encouraging people to have their birds tested for Newcastle because they have to have contact," he said. "Most likely birds are going to be sick and coming down with Newcastle if they actually had contact with a sick bird."
Contact staff writer Kathryn Gillick at (760) 740-5412 or kgillick@nctimes.com.
2/21/03
WRAL, NC
Farmers, Bird Owners Warned Of Deadly Poultry Disease
POSTED: 8:01 a.m. EST February 21, 2003
UPDATED: 9:15 a.m. EST February 21, 2003
http://www.wral.com/news/1995526/detail.html
HARNETT COUNTY, N.C. -- The state's top veterinarian is warning poultry farmers and pet bird owners to watch out for a deadly disease.
Illegal bird smugglers are blamed for the worst outbreak of Exotic Newcastle Disease in 30 years, now ravaging parts of California, Nevada and Arizona. More than two million birds have been destroyed and thousands of areas are quarantined.
North Carolina officials fear for the state's multi-billion dollar poultry industry, as well zoos and pet birds.
They said the diease is serious enough that people who have birds should stay away from other birds and even other bird owners.
Humans cannot catch the virus.
Spencer Daily Reporter, IA
For the survival of the industry
By: Kris Todd February 21, 2003
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=7127712&BRD=1008&PAG=461&dept_id=401773&rfi=6
The State of Iowa recently announced an order banning avian species or products originating from California, Nevada and Arizona from entry into its borders.
For the survival of the industry
By Kris Todd
Daily Reporter Staff
As a result, the Hy-Line International location in Spencer is gearing up to protect its interests and its customers from Exotic Newcastle Disease, a highly contagious virus which has been detected in some of the West Coast states' commercial poultry industry.
"It's an extremely severe virus that affects multiple organ systems in birds," explained Kenton Kreager, the technical service director for Hy-Line's worldwide veterinary department. "In birds that have no vaccine protection, it can cause very high mortality, like 90 percent death loss. Sometimes, that's all you see is just sudden severe death loss."
He adds the virus is so severe that the vaccines normally used within the United States are not enough to stop the disease, which can be transmitted through respiratory secretions, carried in the air or through the tracking of an infected bird's feces.
Kreager made a stop in Spencer Tuesday afternoon to update Hy-Line employees on how to prevent any further transfer of this virus.
"We've always had a ... pretty tight biosecurity system as far as making sure that we wear uniforms and clean boots to any site that we may go to and being careful of what we're doing at that time," said Ron Muetzel, who serves as the Spencer location manager, which produces 25 million of the 100 million chicks hatched each year at Hy-Line sites. "We've had this over a long period of time, but it doesn't hurt to just remind ourselves that this thing is very, very contagious, and just to make sure that we're doing everything we can do."
First diagnosed Oct. 1, 2002, outside Los Angeles, Kreager reports the often fatal poultry disease was spread to commercial facilities from backyard poultry establishments.
"Dec. 27, 2002, was when it was first found in a commercial layer flock (in the United States)," he said. "...My understanding is that an ex-employee of (a southern California) layer farm placed some of his fighting cocks or backyard birds into a layer house for some temporary housing. And so, it was direct transmission from his birds to those layers in the same house, which is a terrible, terrible breach of biosecurity."
"I'm not too fearful of it if we vaccinate for it correctly and our husbandry is taken care of," assured Muetzel of the Spencer Hy-Line site and its day-old chicks and hatching eggs. "But, when you get these backdoor fighting cocks and things like this, it disrupts our whole poultry industry or it can be disruptive. It makes me very fearful about what could happen to our future if it gets out of hand."
While both Hy-Line officials admit their commercial hatchery located in the quarantined zone in southern California has not witnessed any birds affected by the disease or destroyed because of it, they concur it is having an impact.
"The way the disease is affecting us is because the hatchery is in the quarantined zone and chicks cannot leave that quarantined zone," said Kreager. "So we have a very limited market now for those chicks to go."
Hy-Line has been financially affected in other ways also, he added.
"A lot of our business is international shipments of breeding stock," Kreager said. "And some other countries have placed embargoes on the entire United States because of the presence of this disease. The worst for us was the European Union. ... There was a four-month period that we were shut out, now it's just limited to those states which are affected."
While Iowa's new order states that no avian species or products originating from areas in the three states considered to be endemic for the disease be allowed entry into the state, exceptions are being approved by State Veterinarian Dr. John Schiltz, based upon epidemiological evaluation and risk determination.
"In reality, if we get the virus out here, most likely it will be because of illegal shipment of game birds or fighting cocks," said Kreager. "The real problem in California has been that the whole thing started in the fighting cock industry, which is illegal. ... There's evidence that the virus is the same that has been in Mexico, so it is suspected the virus probably came in with smuggled fighting cocks from Mexico and has continued to be transmitted among those people and their birds."
He adds there is danger that birds coming in illegally from California could very well have the Exotic Newcastle Disease.
"People that are involved in trading these types of birds should try to avoid that, especially now until this gets totally controlled," said Kreager. "If any unusual illness is noted, they should have it checked probably by a poultry specialist like Dr. Darrell Trampel at Iowa State."
Meanwhile, in an attempt to prevent an outbreak from occurring at any of the Hy-Line locations throughout the nation, Kreager said they're trying to educate employees and remind them to avoid contact with fighting cocks.
"There's a great fear that these infected birds may be moving out of California," he said. "The owners are purposely doing that to protect their birds from being destroyed, so they are moving them illegally out of the quarantined zone. It could be into the Midwest, anywhere in the country. And so, that's our fear, that it could pop up anywhere. That's why we want our people and anyone associated with our flocks at all to very strictly avoid any contact, direct or indirect."
* A statewide meeting sponsored by the Iowa Poultry Association is scheduled on Feb. 26 from 1-4 p.m. in the Scheman Building at Iowa State University in Ames. Kreager, along with Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Patty Judge, State Veterinarian Dr. John Schiltz, Iowa State University Extension Poultry Veterinarian Dr. Darrell Trampel and Gretta Irwin of the Iowa Turkey Federation are among the afternoon's keynote speakers.
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