Gainesville Times, GA
http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/news/stories/20030730/localnews/553343.html
"The Mexican agreement also will end restrictions on imports due to certain
animal disease testing and will "reclassify" U.S. states as disease-free if they
are classified as such by USDA. Most recently, the occurrence of exotic
Newcastle disease in border states such as California and Texas led the Mexican
government to place import restrictions on poultry."
July 30, 2003
U.S. and Mexico make deal on exports
The United States and Mexican governments have agreed to a five-year safeguard
under the North American Free Trade Agreement aimed at protecting Mexico's
domestic poultry industry.
Announcement of the policy came July 25 during a conference call moderated by
the USA Poultry & Egg Export Council.
The council, based in Stone Mountain, works to promote and assist the export of
U.S. poultry and egg products. Its members account for more than 90 percent of
such exports from the country.
The measure was developed amid concerns by the Mexican government and poultry
industry over a potential glut of U.S. poultry products coming into the country
now that tariffs have been lifted under NAFTA.
A six-month provisional safeguard was signed in January to allow more time for
the two governments to negotiate a longer-term measure.
The agreement sets a limit only on U.S. leg quarter shipments to Mexico for the
next five years. For the remainder of this year, the U.S. can export to Mexico
46,950 metric tons of leg quarter meat at a zero import duty, according to the
Mexican government's Diario Oficial.
The total quota for the whole year is set at 100,000 metric tons. Any product
exported beyond that is subject to a 98.8 percent import tariff.
The safeguard will be applicable until Dec. 31, 2007. After that, unless other
safeguards are put into place, there will be no quotas set on U.S. leg quarter
exports to Mexico.
Also, the quota and tariff amounts will adjust each year between now and 2007.
The quota will increase 1 percent each year. The tariff on products shipped
beyond the quota amount will decrease in equal increments per year until a "zero
level" is reached.
The Mexican agreement also will end restrictions on imports due to certain
animal disease testing and will "reclassify" U.S. states as disease-free if they
are classified as such by USDA. Most recently, the occurrence of exotic
Newcastle disease in border states such as California and Texas led the Mexican
government to place import restrictions on poultry.
Prior to the agreement, Mexico was considering accusing the United States of
dumping poultry products and taking the case to the World Trade Organization.
According to USA Poultry & Egg Export Council, the United States exported more
than 147,000 metric tons of chicken to Mexico last year. Overall, the country is
the third-largest export market for U.S. poultry products.
Chris Hill is editor and production director of Gainesville-based Poultry Times.
He can be reached at (770) 536-2476 or chill@poultryandeggnews.com.
Visalia Times-Delta, CA
http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/news/stories/20030728/localnews/542025.html
Local News - Monday, July 28, 2003
Teamwork tackles poultry disease
By Don Curlee
Nobody is happy when disease strikes agricultural plants or animals. But once in a while the crisis profile of an epidemic gives rise to the necessity that becomes the mother of invention.
Take last fall's outbreak of exotic Newcastle disease in a Southern California poultry flock. It resulted in the euthanizing of 3 million egg-producing chickens and more than 100,000 game birds and backyard poultry to prevent the disease from spreading to other poultry producing areas of the state.
The five-county region encircling the initial find was placed under a quarantine that is not expected to be lifted for several months more.
But scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in partnership with researchers from other institutions, developed a way to identify the disease in suspect birds within four hours. Older methods required six to 12 days.
In the opinion of one member of the partnership from the University of California, Davis, the breakthrough in detecting the disease significantly aided its containment. The third member of the partnership was the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Containing the disease was of paramount importance. Central California counties such as Fresno, Merced and Stanislaus can have as many as 7 million to 14 million birds apiece on the ground at any meat production site in the Central Valley.
Paula McCready, leader of the eight-member research team, said faster detection allows for early identification of the affected animals.
"If an outbreak is not quickly detected," she said, "it spreads rapidly, affecting the state's poultry industry and its ability to trade with other states and countries."
The rapid-response identification of the disease was facilitated by a gnomic approach developed by the research team. The team's computation group used unique software to identify a target sequence to distinguish between the highly virulent forms of the virus and other forms.
Since the detection method was developed, it has been used routinely in surveillance efforts in unaffected commercial flocks to ensure their disease-free status. These efforts are expected to continue at almost 600 different poultry houses to demonstrate that the state is free of the disease.
While commercial poultry operators, whether for eggs or meat, are extremely careful about disease prevention, imported birds which enter the country as pets or as fighting gamecocks can carry the disease, which spreads rapidly and easily.
In this case teamwork and the application of up-to-date methods stopped the disease from spreading. That's something to crow about.
Don Curlee is a free-lance writer who specializes in agricultural issues. Write to him at Don Curlee-Public Relations, 457 Armstrong Ave., Clovis, CA 93612
Bakersfield Californian, CA
http://www.bakersfield.com/top/story/3531990p-3564486c.html
July 27, 2003
CRYING FOWL OVER COMPENSATION
By MARYLEE SHRIDER , Californian staff writer
e-mail: mshrider@bakersfield.com
Henry A. Barrios / The Californian
Mary Denny's small piece of land south of Mojave is under quarantine because she owns birds that may have been exposed to exotic Newcastle disease. The state is trying to keep the deadly disease from spreading to birds throughout the state.
In the 10 months since a deadly poultry virus was first found in
California, taxpayers have doled out $22.3 million to bird owners,
with nearly half of that money going to owners of fighting cocks.
Cockfighting is illegal in California, but that hasn't stopped
owners of 80,000 game birds from collecting $9.3 million in
compensation for birds destroyed in the battle against exotic
Newcastle disease.
But exactly who got all that taxpayer money is impossible to know.
State and federal officials say it's nobody's business.
Officials flatly refused to answer any questions about taxpayer-
funded bird compensations when first questioned by The Californian
in March. Now, four months and two Freedom of Information Act
requests later, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has released a
377-page report listing the types of birds destroyed and
compensation paid, but still refuses to identify most of those
getting the money.
Taxpayers Footing The Bill
What is clear in the report, is that owners of game fowl -- any bird
trained or bred for cockfighting -- have received about 42 percent
of the total compensation paid to California bird owners.
Since exotic Newcastle disease was first discovered in a backyard
game-fowl flock in Los Angeles, the virus has made its way into
Arizona, Nevada and Texas, costing taxpayers a combined $31 million
in compensation payments alone.
Ag officials and animal rights advocates have repeatedly pointed to
cockfighting as the likely flash point for the highly contagious
virus. Cockfighting is illegal almost everywhere in the United
States, but California Department of Food and Agriculture spokesman
Larry Cooper said the task force's hands are tied when it comes to
the compensation bird owners receive.
It is illegal to fight the birds, Cooper said, but it's perfectly
legal to own, breed and show them.
"It's simply not within our regulatory process to determine that
those birds are being illegally used," he said. "That cannot be
proven until they're raided by a local law enforcement officer.
That's not our directive."
Bird prices were established early on by the combined state and
federal Exotic Newcastle Disease Task Force. Compensation amounts
have ranged from $2 for an egg-laying hen to $1,850 for an exotic
double yellow-head parrot. Some game fowl, like roosters and brood
hens are valued as high as $500, according to task force pricing
rules. Bird owners, Cooper said, are repaid fair market value for
their birds, but if they can produce evidence the birds are worth
more, the task force must pay that amount.
"They have to provide written documentation to support their
contention," he said.
Circular Logic
In California, nearly 4 million birds of all types -- from barnyard
chickens to exotic white peacocks and golden pheasants -- have been
destroyed in a thus far successful effort to keep the virus from
spreading north.
Most of the birds destroyed in California, about 3.7 million of
them, were layer hens from 27 Southern California commercial egg
operations, which shared $10.8 million in compensation -- an average
of $2.89 per bird. The names and locations of commercial operations,
loosely defined by the task force as "premises with at least 500
birds for the purpose of food production," are included in the USDA
report.
All other bird operations, regardless of the number of birds or what
they're used for, are considered non-commercial. Citing privacy
reasons, officials refused to release the names of non-commercial
bird owners despite the eye-popping amounts some have received.
A bird owner in Lancaster, for example, was paid $328,155 for 2,025
birds, all but three of which were game fowl. In Kern County, a
Mojave resident got $22,380 for 172 game birds, including roosters,
hens and chicks.
Terry Francke, general counsel for the California First Amendment
Coalition, said the public has a strong interest in how its tax
dollars are spent and the fact that some of the bird owners operate
under a residential address does not necessarily mean that the
address has a privacy interest.
"By what criteria do they determine these are non-commercial owners?
Just the fact they don't hang out a shingle?" Francke said. "The
very fact they are being paid extraordinary sums for their birds
means that the birds do have some commercial value, so I think we
have some circular reasoning here."
Lost Birds
Not all bird owners are shy when it comes to talking about their
lost birds -- or the money they received for giving them up.
Lydia Paul kept eight chickens, three ducks and one goose in the
yard of her Mojave home until April, when she noticed some of the
chickens showing signs of exotic Newcastle disease. The symptoms
quickly grew worse until the chickens were gasping for air, drowning
in their own phlegm. After a call to the task force hot line, ag
officials came out to test the birds. The chickens tested positive
for the virus, which meant all the birds had to go. Paul received
$125 in compensation.
"I had raised all of them and it was hard to let them go, but it was
harder to watch them suffocate," she said. "It was horrible. I would
have let them take the birds even without the compensation."
Task force officials destroyed a total of 298 birds in the remote
rural area of Mojave where Paul lives and, in May, quarantined an
area of about 1,387 square miles. It was the first discovery of the
virus outside a large quarantined zone in Southern California that
included Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara, Riverside,
Orange, San Diego and Imperial counties.
Paul had only kind words for the task force team, which came to her
farm clothed in protective white coveralls, bonnets, gloves and
boots. The team took the birds away for euthanization, which is
generally done by gas, then spray sterilized every inch of Paul's
property up to within a few feet of her front door.
"They even sprayed up in the trees because feathers can fly up
there," Paul said.
Task force members commiserated with Paul over the loss of her
birds, she said, and answered all of her questions. They also left
Paul with 10 young sentinel birds to serve as the proverbial canary
in the coal mine. The chickens' continued survival, Paul was told,
would indicate a disease-free yard.
"They said they would take the chickens away after that or I could
keep them," said Paul, who has resigned herself to eating store-
bought eggs until the birds start laying. "I'm going to keep them."
Task force officials conducted a final test on Paul's chickens on
July 2. If the tests come back negative, the quarantine on her
property will be lifted and she can remove the warning sign from her
front fence.
There was no warning sign to be seen at the small farm just up the
road from Paul's place, where nearly all of the 40 or 50 rickety
pens built by Pedro Venegas stand empty. Only a few sentinel birds
remain in the pens -- slapped-together shelters made from chicken
wire, cardboard and scrap lumber.
Venegas, who speaks little English, said through a translator that
task force officials destroyed about 100 of his game birds, 30 of
them roosters.
Venegas couldn't remember exactly how much he was compensated for
his birds, but estimated he received about $180 per rooster -- a
pittance of what they're worth, he said.
"It's better than nothing," Venegas said, shrugging. "Some roosters
come as high as $1,000. That's the price in the trade magazines."
Venegas, a Mojave resident for 10 years, said he had to keep his
birds in separate pens because of their aggressive nature. He said
he enjoyed breeding his birds for their "purebred" qualities and
never fought them. He felt bad when the birds began showing signs of
exotic Newcastle disease and called the task force number, which he
got off a flier at a feed store.
The soft-spoken Venegas gazed sadly at the empty cages as he spoke
about his lost birds. It will take him four years, he said, to
rebuild his flock.
Fighting The Cockfighters
Cockfighting generally doesn't get a lot of attention from law
enforcement agencies because fighting birds and possession of
cockfighting paraphernalia, like the blades that are strapped to the
fighting cock's legs, are misdemeanors. Sgt. Ric Yorke, with the
Kern County Sheriff's Department Rural Crime Investigation Unit,
said clandestine cockfighting operations are notoriously difficult
to track and few law enforcement agencies have the manpower to
devote to large-scale investigations of misdemeanors.
"When I was a senior deputy in Lamont we occasionally would discover
cockfights when we were there investigating something like a noise
violation or peace disturbance," he said. "We look for all the
crimes being committed, but when it comes to cockfighting, there is
usually no one left by the time we get there."
Even if deputies had the resources, Yorke said, locating and raiding
cockfighting activities would be a monumental task.
"There's a statewide network of people who buy and sell these birds,
so it's going to be a difficult thing to control," he said. "It's
good thing that they're looking at passing laws that will limit and
make it a felony to transport cockfighting implements. That may
help."
Legislation that would authorize felony-level jail time for
cockfighting and prohibit the interstate commerce of cockfighting
implements is currently before state and federal lawmakers. The anti-
cockfighting bill SB 732, which has already been passed by the
Senate, would increase the penalty for a second cockfighting offense
to a minimum of six months in prison and a fine of up to $25,000.
Wayne Pacelle, a senior vice president of the Humane Society of the
United States, said the society fully supports the bills as well as
an amendment to the 2004 Agriculture Appropriations Act that will
secure $800,000 for enforcement of the existing federal animal
fighting law. The amendment passed in a House vote July 14, during a
debate of the act, which funds the Department of Agriculture.
It's time, Pacelle said, to enforce the laws already in place.
"The law we have now bans any interstate movement of dogs or birds
for fighting purposes or any exports or imports of fighting birds or
dogs," he said. "It's partly because of the failure to enforce this
law that has contributed to the outbreak (of exotic Newcastle
disease) and caused an expenditure in excess of $100,000 million."
Pacelle said there is broad support for the bills among animal
welfare advocates who are outraged over the large compensations paid
to owners of game fowl.
"I'm sure anyone who cares about animals is outraged," he
said. "It's enriching individuals who are breaking the law and
allowing these people to continue to operate. These people need to
be put out of business, not subsidized for their illegal conduct."
Dean Florez, D-Shafter, said he is "very happy" to support the
pending legislation and any efforts to reduce cockfighting, but
urged his fellow lawmakers to recognize that not all game birds are
cockfighters.
"This is a tough nut to crack," said Florez of cockfighting. "It is
important that our federal legislators recognize that the Department
of Food and Agriculture needs more tools to differentiate between
game birds and poultry that will prevent the use of tax dollars to
subsidize this illegal activity."
Pacelle did not argue that ownership of fighting birds should remain
legal, but said the masquerade that the majority of the birds are
used for legitimate purposes should end.
"These are not show birds," he said. "The preponderance of these
birds are used for fights."
There are, by some estimates, as many as 50,000 illegal cockfighting
locations in California alone. Pacelle said he's not surprised.
"Cockfighters are organized criminals and the only thing that will
stop them is a properly enforced law with teeth," he said. "It's
rampant and the presence of prohibition is not going to be enough.
We have to have meaningful penalties to make these laws work."
Here To Stay
Even if the bills pass, some owners of fighting birds say there will
be no end to cockfighting, especially among ethnic groups that
embrace the sport as a cultural experience.
One local cockfighter, who asked that his name not be used in order
to protect his professional standing, said contrary to the
misconceptions people have about the sport, cockfighting is not
inhumane, but allows the birds to do something their aggressive
natures already compel them to do. Enforcement would only result in
a tremendous waste of tax dollars, he said.
"No matter how many laws there are against cockfighting, with the
number of Hispanics and Filipinos in the state of California, it's
here to stay," he said. "So there's now a law that prohibits
gamebirds from interstate transports. Do you really think the
manpower is going to be wasted at the border to check every vehicle
for chickens?"
Joe Rodriguez, a Bakersfield game-bird breeder who sometimes
advertises his birds in trade magazines like "Feathered Warrior,"
said he never fights his birds but understands the thrill of the
sport.
"Fighting is in your blood, it's the way you were raised," Rodriguez
said. "With all the Hispanics in this county I don't think it will
ever stop."
Rodriguez said raising game fowl is a hobby he shares with his sons,
who have won awards for their brightly plumed gamebirds at the Kern
County Fair. Now, in deference to the Newcastle outbreak, Rodriguez
has stopped selling birds and will not until it's safe for him to do
so, he said.
Despite the Newcastle outbreak and pending legislation, Rodriguez
said he is confident that cockfighting will continue.
"They might be backyard hacks that hold orange grove derbies, but
nobody will ever know about those," he said. "It's a close-knit
thing, where family members stick together. I think it will be going
on for the next 100 years."
Bakersfield Californian, CA
http://www.bakersfield.com/top/story/3531990p-3564493c.html
OWNERS REELING FROM SUDDEN SLAUGHTER OF BIRDS
By MARYLEE SHRIDER , Californian staff writer
e-mail: mshrider@bakersfield.com
Saturday July 26, 2003, 09:48:00 PM
The myriad cages, pens and hen houses in Shareen Morris' back yard
stand empty and abandoned, as if the former occupants suddenly rose
up en masse and fled.
In a way, Morris wishes they had.
The 468 birds that lived in those pens didn't flee, but were killed,
victims of exotic Newcastle disease and state and federal efforts to
keep the virulent poultry virus from spreading.
Now, a broken-hearted Morris, the self-described bird lady of
Littlerock, Calif., says she wonders what is left for her now that
her birds are gone.
"Those animals were pretty much my everything," she said. "I still
think about all those special pets I had -- those friends I had --
and I hope I can make some new ones."
Nearly 4 million birds, most of them laying hens at commercial
poultry operations, have been destroyed in the state's 10-month
fight with Newcastle disease. The loss of a million or so laying
hens is undoubtedly a serious blow to any commercial operation, but
the slaughter of pet birds like ducks, geese, cockatiels and
peacocks sometimes leaves owners reeling from the trauma.
It's a circumstance officials recognized in May, when they began
referring bird owners to county mental health agencies for grief
therapy, said Adrian Woodfork, spokesman for the Exotic Newcastle
Disease Task Force.
The task force, he said, also offers stress counseling and
sensitivity training to task force employees who deal daily with the
deadly disease.
But the six weeks of counseling provided to Morris and husband Joe
weren't enough to wipe away the nightmare of the December day when
task force officials, accompanied by Los Angeles County sheriff's
deputies, came to euthanize her birds.
"They swarmed my house like a SWAT team," the 55-year-old Morris
said. "They arrived around 10 in the morning and didn't leave until
8 p.m."
Morris said she notified the task force when some of her chickens
started dying in late December, but never expected to lose her
entire menagerie, which included exotic white peacocks, golden
pheasants and endangered Hawaiian nene geese.
The slaughter happened so quickly, Morris said, a task force agent
inadvertently killed one of the Hawaiian nenes (pronounced nay-
nays), a protected species.
"They got in a hurry and killed Waterbug," said Morris, who named
each of her birds. "It affected me so, I just fell to my knees."
The remaining nenes were moved to a quarantine facility, but the
rest of the couple's birds were destroyed, including Joe's flock of
111 racing pigeons. Most of the birds were gassed, but some of the
larger ones, Morris said, were shot, an assertion Woodfork could not
confirm.
"I stayed in the house, but could still hear the shots," Morris
said. "I couldn't go out there."
The Morrises received nearly $40,000 in compensation for their lost
pets, but the money and the return of the nenes two weeks ago did
little to comfort the couple who had spent hours each day tending
their birds.
Morris is using some of those compensation dollars to slowly rebuild
her flock, recently buying four peacocks from a friend who could no
longer care for them. She said she plans to keep the flock small
this time to avoid another full-scale slaughter in the event the
disease returns.
The Morrises and about 15 other bird owners took their case to
Hollywood attorney William Dailey, who filed a court petition in
March asking that the task force "cease and desist what they're
doing in such a brutal, expensive and unnecessary fashion."
Dailey said the bird owners would like the task force to establish a
waiting period before euthanizations and allow owners the
opportunity to care for their own birds. Had dogs and cats been
killed in a similar manner, Daily said, lawmakers would have heard
pet owners' howls all the way to Sacramento.
"If you use proper quarantine protocols, the disease isn't going
anywhere, so you don't have to go around killing innocent birds,"
Dailey said. "Some of the killings generally seemed overly hasty."
But Woodfork said task force officials, working by the seat of their
pants in the early months of the crisis, had few options in the face
of a virus so deadly it threatened the state's entire poultry
industry.
"We realized this disease spreads very fast so, in order to save the
majority of our birds, we had to kill a few," Woodfork said. "We've
learned a lot since the beginning, but whose to say where we'd be if
we hadn't acted so fast."
The task force is optimistic, Woodfork said, that they will have
eradicated the disease by the end of the year.
In the meantime, Morris said, she and her husband will continue to
work through their grief. Right now, Morris is happy her geese
didn't forget her during their long quarantine away from home.
"They survived it and I'm still here, but it will never be the
same," she said. "When they took our animals, they took our life."
Ventura County Star, CA
http://www.insidevc.com/vcs/county_news/article/0,1375,VCS_226_2139420,00.html
Fair offers something for all
Birds gone, but other attractions remain
By Molly Freedenberg, mfreedenberg@insidevc.com
July 27, 2003
Animal fans at this year's Ventura County Fair might be disappointed there are
no chickens or other birds, but organizers say fairgoers should have plenty of
other animals to see -- and activities to do -- to keep them happy.
When it comes to the smaller critters, small livestock superintendent Susan
White said, there will still be rabbits and cavies, or guinea pigs, on display.
As in past years, there will be showmanship and costume contests for both
breeds, as well as a rabbit-hopping exhibition the first weekend of the fair.
"It's kind of like those dog trials where they go through things and over
things," said White. "But they just have little jumps that they go over."
And fowl fans shouldn't be completely disappointed, she said. Though rooster
crows won't fill the air and chicken feathers won't carpet the ground, photos of
chickens will be entered in the costume contest.
For example, said 4-H mom Susan Trockey, her daughters will have pictures of
their poultry up at the fair. Emmaline, 6, and Katherine, 9, turned their
chickens into an angel and a '50s femme, with poodle skirt and little pink
motor-scooter.
"They're not getting their birds ready to take to the fair ... but they'll still
have a great time," Trockey said.
The poultry showmanship competition also will go on, said White. But lifelike
toy birds instead of the real thing will be the models for poultry owners to
show their knowledge of anatomy and handling.
Also on display will be posters about exotic Newcastle disease, the contagious
illness that has threatened poultry populations this year and sparked a
statewide ban on poultry at fairs announced by Gov. Gray Davis in January.
Diseases affecting larger animals also have made the news in recent years, but
large-livestock superintendent Craig Fosdick said talk of mad cow,
hoof-and-mouth and other diseases won't affect the fair's animal displays.
That means plenty of hooved creatures to visit, whether it be the 525 dairy
goats, 45 pigmy goats or 520 breeding sheep. Then, of course, there are also the
market-ready animals, such as pigs, lambs and cows, and Herbie, everyone's
favorite Asian water buffalo.
Fosdick says people bring their animals from all over the West, including
Oregon, Nevada and especially Arizona.
"Have you been to Tucson, Arizona, in August? Compare that to Ventura beach,"
said Fosdick. In fact, fair organizers originally worried their dairy goat show
was the same weekend as the one at the Orange County Fair. Apparently, there was
no need to fret. "They have 211 entries, but we have 525 because folks want to
come here and be on the beach."
For those enchanted by things other than birds and beasts, there will be plenty
more to see, including such musical acts as Leann Rimes, Heart and the Supremes.
There are the usual rides, along with some new ones. And there always are the
unusual exhibits, such as last year's display of a giant tractor, which is
returning to the agriculture department this year.
"People loved it. I thought, 'Ho hum, a tractor, who cares?' " said fair
spokeswoman Teri Raley. "But every time I went in there, there were dozens of
fairgoers, largely male, just mesmerized by it."
Merced Sun-Star, CA
http://www.mercedsun-star.com/news/newsview.asp?c=67449
Stanislaus County Fair opens today
Friday, July 25, 2003
Pacific-Sierra News Service
By Ray Estrada
Turlock Journal
Something new - and old - will be drawing fun-lovers to the 2003 Stanislaus
County Fair, which opens today at 5 p.m. at the fairgrounds in Turlock.
The first County Fair Idol competition is tonight at 7 p.m., Based on TV's
"American Idol" show, the first 500 fans who show up at the US Bank-Club
Stanislaus Stage will get ballots to vote on 10 performers who will sing and
dance; the performer with the fewest votes will be eliminated from the
competition.
The others will compete each night of the 10-day fair until just one performer
is left. The winner will be awarded $1,000 cash and other prizes. Turlock
residents Rosemary Fryer, 17, and Tara Tyler, 24, are among the contenders.
"This is going to be a great fair, " said fair board member and longtime Turlock
dairyman Ray Souza.
Also today, the annual livestock judging for sheep is at 2 p.m.; dairy and beef
cattle judging will be held at 4 p.m. in the southwest corner of the fairgrounds
near the corner of West Canal Drive and Soderquist Road.
One livestock category that will be absent this year is poultry - because of the
possibility of spreading exotic Newcastle's disease, which affects many types of
fowl including chickens.
The fair board decided in January to cancel the poultry-raising competition.
Instead, a display of papier-maché chickens can be found in the Farmyard
Experience hall.
Fair Chief Executive Officer Tony Leo, who led a tour of the fairgrounds for
board members and news media Thursday, said he was particularly proud of this
year's Floriculture center.
The air-conditioned building has a cool, garden-like atmosphere with flowers,
plants, fountains and water misters.
A new carnival ride midway operator, Butler Amusements, has brought 35 rides
from last week's Merced County Fair, including the $1 million "Fireball," made
in Holland. The brightly lit contraption spins and swings back and forth.
"You won't get dizzy, you don't get nauseous," said midway boss Kelsey LePresto.
"It's just thrilling."
After taking a test ride, fair board Vice-president Suzanne Lazar agreed with
LePresto. "That was awesome," she said. "I think I screamed the most."
Another addition to this year's fair is the Interactive Game Experience, located
in a tent with a large fan, featuring a variety of video games including "Dance
Craze."
In keeping with the fair's theme, "Saluting 30 Years of American Graffiti," the
A&W Stage will feature Elvis Presley impersonators, 1950s rock bands and one of
the members of American Graffiti's cast, now known as disc jockey Herbie
Hancock; the actor known as Beau Gentry, played a member of the Pharaohs gang in
the film.
Near-100-degree heat is expected through the run of the fair with nighttime lows
in the upper-60s.
Fair spokeswoman Pennie Rorex said anyone who believes they are suffering from
heat-related problems should contact sheriff's deputies patrolling the grounds
or anyone with a hand-held radio - or head to the first-aid station near the
media center.
A $2 discount on adult fair tickets today is available if a canned food item is
donated at the gate. Reserved tickets are $6 and may be purchased at tickets.com
outlets, at www.tickets.com, by calling (800) 225-BASS or at the fair office,
900 N. Broadway, Turlock.
Tickets for various professional entertainers have different prices. Call the
fair office for times, dates and other information at 668-1333, ext. 336.
Music headliners this year include guitarist Peter Frampton, Creedence
Clearwater Revisited, WAR, and the Village People.
Ventura County Star, CA
http://www.insidevc.com/vcs/county_news/article/0,1375,VCS_226_2132912,00.html
Poultry costume contest fills gap in events
By Jake Finch, Correspondent
July 24, 2003
With the statewide ban on live birds this year, Susan White figured she needed
some other event to jazz up the poultry competitions at the Ventura County Fair.
So the superintendent of Small Livestock has added a chicken and rooster costume
contest to the fair's roster of events.
"The kids dress them up and send the photos in. We've had some good ones sent
in," said White, who will display the photos of the contestants in the barn.
Some of the contest entries include Admiral Bird, a hula dancing chicken,
Superchicken, alarm cock, a genie, pirate and baseball player.
"I think the hot part of the fair is going to be the poultry costume contest,"
said fair spokeswoman Teri Raley, who has seen some of the early entries.
"There's something about a chicken in costume that's really over the top."
White hopes the contest will fill the gap left by the live poultry events, which
were canceled at all fairs and shows this year because of the fear of spreading
exotic Newcastle disease.
"They have a travel ban. You can't transport the birds from county to county. It
hurts. You have birds bred up and you can't do anything with them. This
Newcastle's just really put a crimp on a lot of things that's going on."
Even so, poultry showmanship events will be held for the children using chicken
and rooster dolls.
Using the dolls, the contestants will demonstrate their poultry anatomy
knowledge.
"But you can't walk a stuffed animal," White said. "They are going to be tested
more on their complete knowledge."
Also, the chicken/rooster cackling contest will be held for its third year. Open
to everyone, contestants offer their best imitation of roosters and chickens.
Sacramento Bee, CA
http://www.sacbee.com/content/business/story/7091080p-8038961c.html
Poultry disease checks in area
State agriculture officials fear spread of exotic Newcastle in the Central Valley.
By Mike Lee -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 a.m. PDT Thursday, July 24, 2003
Exotic Newcastle disease remains such an ominous threat to the state's $1.3
billion poultry industry that surveyors are fanning out across the Sacramento
region and Northern California in search of sick backyard birds.
The fatal and highly contagious avian disease was recently controlled in
Southern California after more than 3 million birds were destroyed in a $158
million eradication effort that crippled the south state's egg industry.
But the potential devastation of Central Valley flocks should exotic Newcastle
disease spread north means agriculture officials aren't taking any chances.
Starting this month, some counties are sending surveyors door-to-door to locate
noncommercial poultry -- including turkeys, ducks, geese and chickens -- and
assess the health of birds they find. The effort is part of a final push to
eliminate the disease in California.
"It's very difficult to control movement of the backyard birds, so we wanted to
be as sure as we could be that there had been no movement of the virus into
Northern California," said state veterinarian Richard E. Breitmeyer.
Investigations of more than 300 sick bird alerts in Northern California have not
yielded any signs of the disease, he said.
Newcastle-infected birds usually die quickly, and the death rate approaches 100
percent for unvaccinated flocks. Symptoms are similar to those of other
respiratory diseases in poultry, including nasal discharges and cloudiness in
the cornea of the eye.
The disease does not harm humans or affect the safety of eggs or poultry
products, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
The 22 counties participating in the surveys include Sacramento, Placer and San
Joaquin, which all have multimillion-dollar chicken and turkey operations to
protect.
Sacramento County, which reported poultry sales of $10 million in 2001, aimed to
complete a survey around the perimeter of the first of nine commercial poultry
meat operations on Wednesday. Homes around the rest should be assessed by the
end of September.
Three county workers are driving through neighborhoods -- starting in Galt,
Herald and Elk Grove -- noting where they spot backyard flocks and handing out
bird-health questionnaires to bird owners.
"Basically, the intent is to prove that (the disease) is not here," said Frank
Carl, Sacramento's agriculture commissioner.
The survey also is designed to figure out where birds are concentrated in case
officials have to respond quickly to an outbreak.
"In a rural county like Placer, we have an awful lot of people who will have a
small flock of maybe five birds for personal use," said Christine Turner, Placer
County's agriculture commissioner.
San Joaquin County, which boasts a $19 million-a-year poultry industry and is
home to 6 million commercial birds, is taking perhaps the most aggressive
approach in the region.
Agriculture Commissioner Scott Hudson aims to send survey crews to each of the
county's 142,000 homes over the next several months to determine if there are
any pockets of sick birds.
Exotic Newcastle disease was discovered in a Compton backyard flock last October
and quickly spread through Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside and San Diego
counties.
The resulting quarantine restricted movement of poultry and eggs out of nine
Southern California counties, a blow to 22 commercial facilities there.
The virus can remain alive in moist, feces-laced dirt for weeks. The eradication
effort, however, has been helped by summer heat that dries soil and kills the
virus.
In Southern California, no new cases of exotic Newcastle disease have been
detected since May 31, and the last commercial operation where birds were
destroyed was given the go-ahead last week to start rebuilding its flock. Flock
owners were paid fair market value for the birds that had to be euthanized.
Given that progress, the massive state and federal force assembled to fight the
disease is shrinking, from a peak of 1,700 last winter to fewer than 600 today.
Still, hundreds of surveyors are starting to go door-to-door for another round
of checkups in Southern California areas where infected birds had been found.
That effort should take several more weeks, but it could lead to the removal of
the quarantine by the end of the year if no new cases are detected.
That would be good news for thousands of children statewide who raise birds for
fair competitions, and a large number of adult bird enthusiasts who take them to
shows.
Across the state, exhibitions of poultry, including poultry barns at fairs, were
banned earlier this year to limit the movement of birds and the potential for
spreading exotic Newcastle disease.
Said Breitmeyer: "If everything goes as well as we hope, we could lift (the ban
on bird exhibitions) for the fair season next year."
To report suspicious bird deaths or for more information, call the exotic
Newcastle disease hotline at (800) 491-1899.
Santa Rosa Press Democrat, CA
http://pressdemocrat.com/local/news/24chickens_b1empireb.html
County surveyed for exotic Newcastle disease
Clean bill of health sought by agricultural inspectors to help producers hurt by
poultry ban
July 24, 2003
By TIM TESCONI
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Survey teams are canvassing Sonoma County looking for signs of a deadly poultry
disease that has forced officials in Southern California to destroy more than 3
million chickens and other birds, including parrots.
So far, exotic Newcastle disease, a highly contagious virus that is fatal to
most fowl, hasn't been found in Sonoma County's commercial poultry operations,
backyard chicken flocks or aviaries. The survey started a month ago and will
continue for a year.
"It's scary. If exotic Newcastle disease hits Sonoma County, it would be so
devastating to the commercial poultry industry and to the many backyard breeders
and 4-H club members who raise poultry," said Nancy Fiddler, an employee of the
Sonoma County Agricultural Commissioner's office who is coordinating the survey.
There are three teams, each with two members going door-to-door in Sonoma
County. Between each stop, the team members spray their shoes with disinfectant,
a biosecurity measure to prevent them from spreading the disease should it be on
the property.
Earlier this week, one of the teams, with inspectors Richard Opbroek and Phil
Stevens, was in rural Petaluma asking homeowners such as Michelle Ramatici if
they have chickens or other fowl and if they've had any birds die or get sick.
Ramatici doesn't have chickens but said she's aware of exotic Newcastle disease
because her husband, John, is in the insurance business and insures many of the
county's agricultural operations, including poultry farms.
The two other survey teams were working in the Glen Ellen area and Rohnert Park.
The Sonoma County Agricultural Commissioner's office is conducting the survey
through a $384,000 contract with the United States Department of Agriculture,
which is overseeing the exotic Newcastle disease eradication campaign in
Southern California.
The exotic Newcastle disease outbreak in Southern California is the worst in 30
years. It has caused the cancellation of poultry exhibits throughout the state
including the popular poultry show at the Sonoma County Fair, currently under
way.
Government officials said it appears that the outbreak in Southern California is
being contained after nearly a year and at the cost of $158 million. At one
time, there were 1,600 people working to eradicate the disease, but the work
force has been reduced to 665 as the disease has been contained.
Leticia Rico, a spokeswoman for the exotic Newcastle disease Task Force, on
Monday said there have been no new infections in Southern California since May
31. She said the quarantine could be lifted by the end of this year.
The survey under way in Sonoma County is an effort to prove that exotic
Newcastle disease is not here so that the county can be declared free of the
disease, clearing the way for eggs and other poultry products to be exported to
foreign markets. Canada, Mexico, China and the European Union have banned
poultry products from California, a move that has impacted Sonoma County
producers such as Santa Rosa Egg Farms in Petaluma and Nicholas Turkey Breeding
Farms in Sonoma.
Fiddler said the survey will provide a map of all the properties with poultry
and other fowl in case there is an outbreak of the disease. Since June 17, the
teams have knocked on 4,000 doors and identified 522 properties with some type
of bird or poultry.
Fiddler said that in addition to mapping places with poultry, the survey teams
also provide information to let people know about the threat of the disease and
how to protect their birds, whether a canary, parrot, African goose or Rhode
Island Red laying hen.
"All of our feathered friends are subject to exotic Newcastle disease so this
survey is really a public outreach and education program to help them protect
their birds," said Fiddler.
Fiddler said the survey is now focusing on areas within a 5.58-mile radius of
Sonoma County's commercial poultry operations. Poultry remains a leading
industry in the county, annually producing $50 million worth of eggs and meat.
You can reach Staff Writer Tim Tesconi at 521-5289 or
ttesconi@pressdemocrat.com.
CIDRAP
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/biosecurity/ag-biosec/news/july2103end.html
Exotic Newcastle waning in California, but quarantines remain
Jul 21, 2003 (CIDRAP News) –Exotic Newcastle disease (END) is disappearing from southern California's poultry flocks after a 9-month battle, but quarantines on the affected counties will probably remain for several more months, according to an official with the state's END Task Force.
No poultry farms or backyard flocks under surveillance in the quarantined counties are known to still harbor the disease, Adrian Woodfork, a California Department of Food and Agriculture spokesman who works with the END task force, told CIDRAP News.
More than 6,000 sites have been released from individual quarantine, meaning the operators can rebuild their flocks, according to Woodfork. But more than 10,700 sites remain under quarantine, he said. And birds still can't be moved out of or into the quarantined counties without a federal permit. The counties are Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Ventura, Santa Barbara, Imperial, and part of Kern.
"We'll lift the [regional] quarantine when it becomes consistent in our surveillance and testing efforts that there are no more positive results coming back," Woodfork said. "How long that is going to be has not really been determined. But at the rate we're going, we're hoping it's going to be a matter of months."
A ban on poultry exhibitions, including poultry displays and sales at fairs, swap meets, and pet stores, remains in effect, he said.
The last of 22 commercial poultry farms was released from quarantine last week, Woodfork said. The farms can rebuild their flocks, but the birds will be tested on a weekly basis until the regional quarantine is lifted, he said.
The last time any birds were destroyed in the effort to contain the fatal disease was May 31, Woodfork said. About 3,016,000 birds have been destroyed since the containment battle began last October, according to the END Task Force Web site. That compares with 12 million birds destroyed in California's END crisis of 1971, Woodfork said.
About 600 people are currently working for the END task force, down from a peak of 1,700 earlier in the outbreak, according to Woodfork. "So we're in the winding down stage for sure," he said.
The task force has spent $158 million fighting the disease in California, according to a Jul 19 report in the online edition of the North County Times, a San Diego County newspaper.
Although END is usually fatal for poultry, it poses no threat to public health and does not affect the safety of poultry or eggs as food, according to health officials.
See also:
California Department of Food and Agriculture END page
http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/ahfss/ah/Newcastle_info.htm
North County Times, CA
http://www.nctimes.net/news/2003/20030719/51315.html
7/19/03
All commercial ranches in state now Newcastle-free
KATHRYN GILLICK
Staff Writer
The final commercial chicken ranch has been released from "strict quarantine," a
spokesman for the task force on Exotic Newcastle disease said Friday. It is not
only the last in San Diego County to be released, but also the last in the
state.
The Armstrong Egg Ranch on Cole Grade Road, which was hit with the disease Feb.
11, was taken off the list. As soon as the ranch tested positive, it was placed
under strict quarantine, which prevented Armstrong from moving any birds on or
off the property.
Armstrong did not return calls Friday.
"It's good news," said Eric Larson, executive director of the San Diego County
Farm Bureau. "This has hit these growers so hard."
When a ranch has been "released" from strict quarantine, all of the potentially
infectious material has been removed from the farms and they have been cleaned,
according to the task force.
Task force spokesman Adrian Woodfork said that when a property is released from
strict quarantine, the owner is allowed to bring in new birds.
The Armstrong ranch and all other premises with birds are still under the
"federal quarantine," which encompasses all of San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa
Barbara, San Bernardino, Riverside, Orange, Imperial and Ventura counties and
part of Kern County. It prohibits bird owners from taking birds out of the
quarantine area without special permission from the task force.
The disease is so contagious, the task force said, that it must kill all birds
at a site where the disease is found. In San Diego County, approximately 500,000
birds have been killed.
In all, seven ranches in San Diego County were hit with Newcastle. Those ranches
are the Armstrong ranches on Cole Grade, Mac Tan and Lilac roads in Valley
Center; Foster Egg Enterprises on Cole Grade Road in Valley Center; Ward Egg
Ranch in Valley Center; Fluegge Egg Ranch in Valley Center; and Ramona Egg
Ranch.
Statewide, 21 ranches tested positive for the disease and one was said to have
had "dangerous contact" with the deadly avian virus.
About 3.9 million birds have been killed in the state, including birds from more
than 1,000 backyard flocks. More than 18,000 properties were put under strict
quarantine since the disease was found in a flock of backyard chickens in
October. Of those, 7,130 premises have been released, according to the task
force.
It has been more than a month since the last backyard flock was stricken with
the disease. No additional commercial farms have tested positive since March 28,
when the disease was confirmed at the Armstrong ranch on Mac Tan Road.
More than 9 million of the state's 12 million egg-laying hens are in the
quarantine zone.
Doug Kuney, a poultry adviser with the University of California Cooperative
Extension, said that the release of all the ranches will allow the poultry
industry in Southern California to "rebuild the flock" to its pre-Newcastle
size.
The task force will test all birds brought back onto the commercial ranches. The
birds will be tested every week until the federal quarantine is lifted, task
force spokesman Adrian Woodfork said.
The task force has been sounding optimistic that the outbreak may be reaching an
end, and Woodfork said that the task force hopes to be able to lift the federal
quarantine within six months.
"We're trying to position ourselves so that near the end of the year we'd be
able to shut down the task force and call it a day," Woodfork said.
The group is surveying each of the quarantine counties by going door to door and
testing birds, spokeswoman Leticia Rico said. Surveys of San Diego, Imperial and
Ventura counties are complete, and there were no signs of the disease, according
to a task force report. It has started work in San Bernardino and Riverside
counties.
Once the surveys are complete, the task force will decide where it can lift
quarantines.
The task force has spent $188 million fighting the disease in California,
Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Nevada, according to Rico. She said $158 million
of that has been spent in California. That is up from the $150 million figure
released May 27.
This is the first large-scale outbreak of Exotic Newcastle since 1971. During
that outbreak, the government killed 12 million birds at a cost of $56 million.
Contact staff writer Kathryn Gillick at (760) 740-5412 or kgillick@nctimes.com.
The Porterville Recorder, CA
http://www.portervillerecorder.com/articles/2003/07/14/news/local_state/news15.txt
Teams to begin combing county for pet bird and poultry owners
By Cecilia Parsons, The Porterville Recorder
July 15, 2003
TULARE - Survey teams from the county agriculture department will begin combing
the county this week for pet bird and poultry owners.
The door-to-door surveys will let ag officials know where poultry and pet birds
are located just in case there is an outbreak in the Valley of Exotic Newcastle
Disease. The survey should also re-assure trading partners that California is
serious about finding and wiping out any outbreaks, said Tulare County
Agricultural Commissioner Gary Kunkel.
"The teams will ask residents if they have any birds. If they do then they will
use a global positioning system to track the location and place it on a map so
we can know where birds are. It's an inventory," said Kunkel.
Knowing where pet birds and poultry are located is the first step in preventing
an outbreak of Exotic Newcastle Disease, he added. When the disease was
discovered in Los Angeles County last October, the county did not have a handle
on where bird populations were located.
According to the California Department of Food and Agriculture, END is a very
serious contagious and often fatal viral disease that affects most species of
birds. Birds with END may have respiratory, nervous, or gastrointestinal signs,
or birds may die without showing any signs. Some bird species can be infected
without showing signs of disease and spread the disease to other birds with
fatal consequences. Birds may become infected though contact with infected
birds, fecal material, or nasal discharge. The disease can also be spread from
one location to another by contaminated clothing, vehicles or equipment.
Kunkel said the survey teams will have identification and hand out information
about END. Teams will begin their surveys in areas where there are commercial
bird operations and Kunkel said Porterville area residents would not be surveyed
until later in the year.
The disease has not been detected north of the Tehachapi Mountains, said Kunkel,
and the surveys should assure residents that the current quarantine has stopped
spread of the disease.
In the Tulare County survey, Kunkel said priority will be given to residential
properties near commercial poultry facilities. Large numbers of birds in a
confined area are particularly vulnerable to the effects of this disease. The
survey team will not inspect yards or conducting diagnostic testing.
Their goal is simply to provide information to the public about Exotic Newcastle
Disease and to gather information from the public about birds on the premises.
The survey is strictly voluntary on the part of the residents. Residents with
questions should contact the Agricultural Commissioner's office at (559)
685-3323.
Tri-Valley Herald, CA
http://www.trivalleyherald.com/Stories/0,1413,86~10671~1511570,00.html
Bird disease puts officials on guard
San Joaquin County is surveying areas where poultry
By Dave Myhra
SAN JOAQUIN BUREAU
San Joaquin County is on the lookout for a disease that could devastate the
poultry population in the area.
"We're doing this under a cooperative agreement with the United States
Department of Agriculture," said Scott Hudson, San Joaquin County agricultural
commissioner.
Exotic Newcastle Disease, which has been seen in Southern California in the last
eight months, has not been detected yet in San Joaquin County. Officials are not
taking any chances, though.
The disease has the potential to become a large problem. In January, the disease
was found in San Diego, Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernadino counties, among
other areas, causing Gov. Gray Davis to declare a state of emergency.
In counties that were quarantined, 11.9 million birds were destroyed, which cost
$56 million and disrupted the operations of many poultry producers.
On July 1, Hudson started a year-long, door-to-door "END" survey.
The goal of the survey is to identify properties with domestic birds and to
spread the word about the disease, according to the agricultural commission.
The disease historically has occurred only in Central and South America, the
Middle East, Africa and Asia.
It has an incubation period of up to 15 days and causes sickness and death in
chickens and other birds. If the disease gets into a flock at a poultry ranch,
it could kill every chicken on that ranch, according to the agricultural
commission.
Because the disease specifically occurs in chickens, parrots and other birds,
the potential for migration by wing or by transportation in trucks is a real
concern, Hudson said.
That is why the survey is being conducted.
Survey teams are being sent out throughout the county. Pairs of workers are
knocking on doors and asking residents if they own chickens and/or other birds.
The commission stresses that it is not looking to handle the birds, or for any
illegal activity.
A fact sheet is being handed out to educate residents as the survey teams move
on.
The surveys have started with county residences and areas within a3-kilometer
circumference around commercial poultry farms, then it will branch out to both
urban and rural areas.
If any of their birds become ill or die, the public is encouraged to call the
Exotic Newcastle Disease hotline at (800) 491-1899.
Channel 4 San Diego
http://www.4sd.com/sdinsider/index.php
8:00 PM San Diego Insider Local community-relations show
This Week:
SEGMENT 1:
Exotic Newcastle Disease
Host: Dennis Morgigno
Reporter: Jack Gates
Photog/ed: Michael Spaulding
San Diego County is the state's second largest egg region, and it has taken a deadly hit. Exotic Newcastle Disease was first discovered in December on an egg ranch in Ramona. Since then, almost 500 thousand egg-laying chickens have died from the disease locally or have been slaughtered to prevent its spread. Many egg ranchers have been wiped out by it. The disease has cost the state and federal government $150 million to fight its effects. We'll look at how it got here, exactly what it is, and what agriculture experts have to say about it.
For more information:
www.cdfa.ca.gov/ahfss/ah/Newcastle info.htm
www.sdfarmbureau.org
Animal News Center
http://www.anc.org/farm/farm_article.cfm?identifier=2003_0712_compensation
Payments to Owners of Killed Birds Denounced
by Sherry Morse
Posted on July 12, 2003
Government officials and animal advocates recently have expressed objections to
compensation given by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to
individuals who owned birds that were killed in order to end an outbreak of a
fatal and highly contagious avian disease.
The objections have been raised because among the individuals whose birds were
killed to counter the spread of Exotic Newcastle Disease (END) in California,
Nevada, Texas and other states are people who conducted cockfights.
"By paying owners of fighting birds at black market rates, the USDA is endorsing
the practice of cockfighting," seven members of the United States Congress wrote
in a letter to Secretary of Agriculture Ann M. Veneman. "The government has no
responsibility to compensate those engaged in illegal activities."
"We do not believe the federal government should use Americans' hard-earned tax
dollars to compensate cockfighters," said Humane Society of the United States
Senior Vice President Wayne Pacelle.
"There is no law against owning the birds," said Exotic Newcastle Disease Task
Force spokesperson Larry Cooper. "There is no law against raising the birds. The
only interest we had was if we found in someone's backyard gamecocks either
infected with Exotic Newcastle or considered a dangerous contact."
Federal legislation that prohibits transporting fighting birds across state
lines went into effect in May.
"It should help to minimize the spread of END and other avian diseases in the
future," said farm animal advocate Rhonda Samstagg.
The possibility that fighting birds illegally smuggled into the United States
from Mexico may have been responsible for the END outbreak is currently being
investigated.
Sources
The New York Times
www.nytimes.com/2003/04/22/national/22BIRD.html
Payments for Fighting Cocks Bring Criticism
by Barbara Whitaker
Avian Welfare Resource Center
www.avianwelfare.org/news/newcastle.htm
Exotic Newcastle Disease
The Humane Society of the United States
www.hsus.org/ace/18433
HSUS Calls on Agriculture Secretary Veneman to Combat Cockfighting
© 2003 Animal News Center, Inc.
Merced Sun-Star, CA
http://www.mercedsun-star.com/news/newsview.asp?c=65498
STAR team, animal control join forces in crackdown
Friday, July 11, 2003
By Mike De La Cruz - Merced Sun-Star
DELHI -- The crowing of close to 217 brightly-plumaged birds greeted Merced
sheriff's deputies as they converged on an Oak Street residence looking for
fighting roosters.
It was Thursday morning and deputies from the Rural Crime Task Force and Sheriff
's Tactical and Reconnaissance (STAR) team, along with Merced County Animal
Control personnel, had commenced Operation Rooster Block.
The operation was formed to crack down on the illegal raising of roosters
specifically trained to fight.
Operation Rooster Block began at 10 a.m. when participating deputies and the
animal control officers were briefed at the STAR team's office at Castle Airport
Aviation and Development Center.
Following the briefing, a long line of vehicles left Castle and headed for Delhi
where they grouped up a few blocks away before swooping on the residence located
at 16241 Oak Street.
Defiant roosters and a chained dog made it obvious that visitors were not
welcome.
When the Delhi operation was over, Martin Valeriano, 38, the owner of an
approximately 20-acre parcel of land south of Delhi, was being detained.
Valeriano, sitting on a chair in the front yard, and a youngster who seemed to
be about 12, were handcuffed.
Valeriano's wife and four children, ages 8 through 10, were detained but not
handcuffed.
The Delhi resident was later arrested and booked on suspicion of raising
fighting roosters and for possession of a steroid, both misdemeanors. The second
charge was lodged after deputies found a packet in the refrigerator containing
an injection used to "pep up" a bird before being put into the ring to fight.
Valeriano was booked into Merced County Jail and then released on his own
recognizance.
Speaking through an interpreter, he said he had no idea why the officers had
burst into his house the way they did.
He admitted raising roosters for breeding purposes and selling them for anywhere
from $200 to $300 apiece. He said he often sold 30 to 40 roosters at a time to
buyers who came all the way from New York to Mexico.
However, he said he did not raise roosters to fight. What was done with them
after he sold them was not his responsibility, he said.
However, Deputy Frank Swiggart explained to him that during a recent probation
search for someone believed to have been living there, deputies had found
evidence -- including a .357 Magnum revolver -- that led them to believe
fighting roosters were being raised on the property.
As a result, the search warrant was obtained and served on Thursday.
Outside, the 217 cocky, strutting roosters looked every bit like they had been
bred to fight.
A line of inverted V-shaped shelters, each containing one bird tethered by one
leg, kept the birds apart. "If we put them together, they would kill each
other," Swiggart said.
Like a professional fighter, each rooster was lean without an extra ounce of
flesh on its body. It was obvious they were bred for fighting, he said, because
their red combs had been cut off to give their opponents less of a hold in the
ring.
A close look at the birds' legs showed the spurs were missing. They are often
cut off early in their training to allow razor-sharp barbs to be slipped on just
before the fight.
In the ring, the lean athletic bird will rush his opponent, jumping in the air
in an attempt to slit the opponent's neck with the sharp barbs or slice its body
to ribbons.
Swiggart said the crackdown on fighting cocks goes further than just humane
purposes.
Illegal fights -- held in the middle of orchards or other secluded areas -- are
sources of large sums of money for betting purposes, narcotics and weapons.
Many times when someone loses a large sum, especially after drinking and doing
drugs, he will revert to violence, Swiggart said. Homicides at cockfights are
not uncommon.
In addition, the deadly and highly contagious exotic Newcastle disease can be
transmitted by illegal rooster owners coming into the area with their birds.
While there is a strict quarantine of poultry coming into Merced County, owners
of these illegal fighting roosters have little regard for a quarantine and will
sneak their birds into the area, the deputy said.
While there have been no cases of exotic Newcastle disease in Merced County,
being vigilant by cracking down on the raising of fighting roosters will ensure
this disease doesn't come into the county, Swiggart said.
The Modesto Bee, CA
http://www.modbee.com/local/story/7105194p-8037503c.html
217 roosters found in raid
By MIKE CONWAY
BEE STAFF WRITER
Published: July 11, 2003, 07:17:36 AM PDT
DELHI -- Deputies and animal control officers swarmed over an Oak Street ranch
Thursday morning and found 217 roosters in shelters and pens.
"This is a large-scale operation," said Merced County Deputy District Attorney
Jim Swanson, who watched the raid.
Martin Contreras Valeriano, 38, of Delhi was arrested on misdemeanor charges of
possession of roosters to be used in fights and possession of steroids used to
build muscle in the birds. He was released from county jail and ordered to
appear in court Sept. 8.
Detective Frank Swiggart of the county's Rural Crime Task Force said authorities
secured a search warrant for the raid after deputies spotted the roosters while
doing a probation search on a man who lived on the property. The deputies said
they also discovered razor-sharp spurs that roosters wear during cockfights,
along with other cockfighting paraphernalia, according to Swiggart.
Besides steroids, the search turned up food supplements. One package contained a
label with instructions to inject the supplement into a rooster "24 hours before
the fight" to increase its energy level, Swiggart said.
Also, he said some birds had been injected with methamphetamine or cocaine to
increase their strength. "That's why these birds can't be released or eaten," he
said.
After banding and photographing the birds, authorities released them into
Valeriano's custody and ordered him to keep the birds alive as evidence until
after court proceedings are finished.
Authorities said they ordered Valeriano to notify animal control officers in the
event of the death of any of the birds.
Kristi Garret, animal services supervisor for county Animal Control, said the
birds she inspected had their combs and spurs cut, a typical sign of birds used
for fighting. "Visually, they looked fine," she said.
She added that they were kept in clean cages and pens.
Valeriano reported that he sold the birds to people for $200 to $300 each,
according to Swiggart. Valeriano added that he did not know what the buyers were
going to do with them, the detective said.
Valeriano reported that he had paid up to $3,000 for a rooster for breeding
purposes, Swiggart said.
"You know nobody pays $200 a bird so they can look pretty in the back yard,"
Swiggart said. "It's 5 to 8 bucks a chicken, or you can catch it on sale for 29
cents a pound.
Swiggart said Thursday's raid was the ninth or 10th raid this year on illegal
rooster ranches in the county.
Cockfights are illegal, and other crimes often take place where they are held,
Swiggart said.
"They are a good social atmosphere to deal drugs," he said. "And we've had two
homicides related to cockfights in this county."
The birds also pose a threat to the county's No. 2 agricultural commodity,
chickens. Poultry contributed about $155.5 million to the county's economy in
2001.
"The fear is with people preparing birds to fight and going to backyard fights,
that it will spread exotic Newcastle disease," Swiggart said.
Bee staff writer Mike Conway can be reached at 381-0208 or mconway@modbee.com.
The Modesto Bee, CA
http://www.modbee.com/local/story/7105202p-8037543c.html
Agriculture officials hope to stop spread of exotic Newcastle disease
By BOB WHITE
BEE STAFF WRITER
Published: July 11, 2003, 07:17:36 AM PDT
Census takers, of sorts, are fanning out in Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties
to count noses -- or, more specifically, beaks.
Agricultural commissioners are sending people door- to-door to ask residents if
they keep birds in their homes or yards -- parrots, parakeets, chickens or
whatever -- and whether any of the birds have died or appeared sick recently.
Ag commissioners in Merced and Tuolumne counties expect to start their own
surveys this month.
The intent is twofold:
To make sure exotic Newcastle disease, which does not hurt humans but is deadly
to poultry, has not spread to Northern California.
To educate the public about the disease and how to prevent it.
At each home, survey workers are leaving literature that explains the disease,
its symptoms and how to guard against it.
The work is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture under one-year
contracts with each of the counties.
It is very important to the poultry industry in the Northern San Joaquin Valley,
which is responsible for much of the state's chicken and turkey production.
In Stanislaus County, chicken production generated $139.2 million in 2002.
Merced County's total for 2001, the last year available, was $155.5 million.
"We need to show other countries there is no Newcastle disease in this area,"
said Bill Mattos, president of the Modesto-based California Poultry Federation.
Southern California poultry has been quarantined by the federal government
because of a Newcastle outbreak first diagnosed in September 2001.
It has killed or forced the destruction of 3 million chickens and cost the
industry and federal and state governments $188 million.
About 40 countries have banned importation of poultry from Southern California
and, in some cases, the United States.
Mattos noted that there have been no new cases of Newcastle disease reported
among commercial flocks in Southern California for four months, and none in
backyard flocks for two months.
Meanwhile, it is important to ensure that there is no incidence of Newcastle
elsewhere in the state, said San Joaquin County Agricultural Commissioner Scott
Hudson.
Hudson said the survey workers, who operate in pairs and wear county
identification badges, do not inspect or handle birds and are not interested in
illegal activity relating to the birds.
Mattos said his organization has received a $75,000 federal grant to establish
an outreach program aimed at heightening awareness among small-flock owners
about the importance of practicing good biosecurity measures.
They include setting up physical barriers between poultry or pet birds and
wildlife, using sanitizing foot baths when entering and leaving bird enclosures,
disinfecting clothing before and after exposure to birds and their enclosures,
and quarantining new additions to the flock.
Bee staff writer Bob White can be reached at 239-2152 or bwhite@modbee.com.
North County Times, CA
http://www.nctimes.net/news/2003/20030710/62212.html
7/10/03
Fourth egg ranch is said to be Newcastle-free
KATHRYN GILLICK
Staff Writer
Another commercial chicken ranch in San Diego County has been deemed free of the
deadly avian virus known as Exotic Newcastle disease, the task force assigned to
eradicate the sickness said Wednesday.
At the same time, the task force disclosed that the total amount of money spent
so far by the federal and state governments to try to stamp out the disease in
California has reached $158 million.
The Armstrong Egg Ranch on Lilac Road in Valley Center is the fourth egg ranch
in the county to be released from "strict quarantine" by the task force. It was
placed under strict quarantine after birds there tested positive for Exotic
Newcastle in February.
Under strict quarantine, birds are not allowed on or off the property.
In all, seven commercial ranches in the county have been hit with the disease
since October.
They are Ramona Egg Enterprises; Armstrong Egg ranches on Cole Grade and Mac Tan
roads in Valley Center; the Foster Egg Ranch on Cole Grade Road in Valley
Center; the Fluegge Egg Ranch on Twain Way in Valley Center; and Ward Egg Ranch
on Fruitvale Road in Valley Center.
Ramona Egg Enterprises, Foster Egg Ranch and the Fluegge Egg Ranch have already
been "released," meaning that all of the potentially infectious material has
been removed from the farms and they have been cleaned, according to the task
force.
According to the task force, the disease is so contagious that it must kill all
birds at a site where the disease is found. In San Diego County, approximately
500,000 birds have been killed. Statewide, that number is more than 3.9 million.
Most of the birds that have been killed are commercial laying hens.
In all, 22 commercial egg ranches in Southern California were infected. Of
those, 17 have been released from strict quarantine.
The commercial ranches that have been released are still under the federal
quarantine that encompasses all of San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San
Bernardino, Riverside, Orange, Imperial, Ventura counties and part of Kern
County.
The federal quarantine prohibits bird owners from taking birds out of the
quarantine area.
The task force seems to be moving toward lifting the quarantine. It is surveying
each of the quarantine counties and, according to task force spokeswoman Leticia
Rico, depending on the results of the surveys, the task force will decide where
it can lift quarantines.
In San Diego County, the survey was completed Saturday and no new infections
were found, Rico said. The results were the same in Ventura and Imperial
counties, she said. Surveys are under way in San Bernardino and Riverside
counties, she said.
The rate of infections have been slowing down since March. In response, the task
force has been scaling down its personnel. According to figures released
Wednesday, there are now 670 people on the task force, which is being headed up
by the California Department of Food and Agriculture and the U.S. Department of
Agriculture.
At its peak, there were more than 1,700 people working in California, New
Mexico, Texas, Arizona and Nevada fighting the disease. The task force is made
up of people from several state and federal agencies who are brought onto the
site for six weeks at a time. The disease did not infect any commercial ranches
outside of California.
The task force has spent a total of $188 million fighting the disease in
California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Nevada, according to Rico. She said
$158 million of that has been spent in California. That is up from the $150
million figure released May 27.
The disease was first found in a flock of backyard chickens in Compton in
October. This is the first large-scale outbreak of Exotic Newcastle since 1971.
During that outbreak, the government killed 12 million birds at a cost of $56
million.
Contact staff writer Kathryn Gillick at (760) 740-5412 or kgillick@nctimes.com.
Ventura County Star, CA
http://www.insidevc.com/vcs/county_news/article/0,1375,VCS_226_2099410,00.html
Fair teaches youths responsibility
July 10, 2003
There are many signs of summer, but one of the surest in my neighborhood is when
we see kids walking lambs up and down the street.
That's right, lambs. It means the Ventura County Fair is just around the corner
and, along with it, the Junior Livestock Auction -- arguably the largest youth
program in the county and one of the fair's main attractions.
According to Norm Davis, owner of Ojai Feed and Junior Livestock chairman for
the fair, last year's auction was a tremendous success.
"The kids raised over a half a million dollars," he said.
The money came from the sale of 380 sheep, goats, cattle, pigs and champion
chickens and rabbits. Because of the ongoing threat to commercial poultry
operations from exotic Newcastle disease, chickens won't be sold at this year's
auction.
Depending on the animal, the kids begin raising their animals as far back as
November for sale in the summer auction. It's a huge commitment, but, according
to Davis, it pays off.
"It teaches them to run a small business," he said. "They learn about sales and
marketing and even have to keep books."
They learn other things, too. Like responsibility. My daughter is raising a lamb
this year. And that means sacrifice for a teenager. She has to get up early,
seven days a week, to feed her lamb. Then she has to feed it again in the
evening and exercise it and train with it so she'll be able to work with her
lamb during the showmanship competition at the fair as well. During showmanship,
she'll have to demonstrate to a judge that she can control her lamb using only
her hands, and have confidence in her own ability to do so. She'll also have
homework. The judge will ask her about the breed of her lamb, where the
different cuts of meat are on it and questions about its raising, care and
health.
My daughter is a member of the Future Farmers of America, but 4H and Grange
members also are active participants in the auction, and the competition between
the groups is intense. The kids come from across the county and around its
edges, places like Santa Paula, Fillmore, Ojai, Ventura, Camarillo, Carpinteria
and Agoura, to show their animals to the 850 or so buyers who are willing to pay
top dollar to reward the kids for their accomplishments.
Some kids, like my daughter, use the proceeds from their animals to increase
their college fund. Other kids have different goals in mind, and some kids learn
the hardest business lesson of all: They lose money or just break even.
Still, everyone leaves the auction a winner because raising the animal is a
worthy achievement all by itself.
"I think the Junior Livestock Auction is tremendously important to the county,"
said Davis. "It's one of the best youth programs around." And you can help.
The fair opens July 30, and the Junior Livestock Auction is Aug. 8
Whittier Daily News, CA
http://www.whittierdailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,207~12026~1501724,00.html
Poultry disease proves costly
Disease may be under control by year's end
By Ben Baeder, Staff Writer
July 9, 2003
PICO RIVERA -- The federal government cut Bernardo De Leon a $3,900 check. All
it wanted in return was every last one of the 20 prize chickens De Leon kept in
his back yard.
One of his chickens had Exotic Newcastle disease.
De Leon, who turned over his birds to government officials in December, was one
of hundreds of Southern Californians whose pet chickens were killed in an effort
to stop the spread of Exotic Newcastle disease.
The United States Department of Agriculture spent $11.5 million to reimburse
owners of 144,000 game fowls infected by the virus.
Exotic Newcastle disease is deadly to chickens and other birds and is considered
a threat to California's poultry industry.
An outbreak in the 1970s led to the death of 12 million birds. But the latest
outbreak, which was confined to Southern California, was contained much earlier
than expected. ''We're looking at by the end of the year to have it totally
under control,'' said Adrian Woodfork, a spokesman for the Exotic Newcastle
Disease Task Force, a collaborative effort of the California Department of Food
and Agriculture and the U.S.D.A.
To save the massive flocks in the Central Valley, many infected pet birds in
urban areas were killed.
''It was a potpourri of birds,'' Woodfork said. ''Lovebirds, finches, parrots,
cockatiels, and, oh, a lot of pigeons.''
Some birds cost the government upward of $1,000.
De Leon, who lives on Durfee Avenue in Pico Rivera and works as a butcher in the
city, didn't think he got enough money for his chickens.
He got $250 for his roosters and $150 for his hens.
''I'm not satisfied, but if that's all they're offering there's not much I can
do,'' he said. ''I don't have the time to fight them over this, and I really
don't want any more problems.'' His birds could have fetched much higher prices
at auction, he said.
But De Leon fared much better than his neighbor Larry Benitez.
In December, members of the task force -- armed with a warrant -- walked into
Benitez's house, grabbed his cockatiel, Brianna, and stuffed her into a barrel
of poisonous gas. Benitez said task force workers told him he would get a $100
check in the mail to pay him for his dead bird.
''I haven't seen a dime yet,'' he said.
Woodfork said those whose birds are killed are usually reimbursed on the spot.
He couldn't explain why Benitez never received his money.
According to Capt. Aaron Reyes of the Southeast Area Animal Control Authority,
the area hasn't had a case of Newcastle disease in months.
The task force is moving into a monitoring phase, Woodfork said.
Using flocks of chickens strategically placed throughout Southern California,
the task force will see if the disease pops up again.
If not, quarantines in unincorporated Whittier and Pico Rivera will soon be
lifted, and bird owners, by the end of this year, will be able to move their
animals in and out of the now-quarantined areas.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Ben Baeder can be reached at (562) 698-0955, Ext. 3024, or by e-mail at
ben.baeder@sgvn.com.
San Gabriel Valley Tribune, CA
http://www.sgvtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,205~12220~1501587,00.html
In battle against disease, U.S. paid for fighting birds
By Mark Sherman, Associated Press
July 9, 2003
Fighting a devastating poultry disease, federal officials in California paid
premium prices to destroy birds probably used as fighting cocks. Halting the
infestation far outweighed concerns about dealing with outlaws, they said.
The Agriculture Department spent $11.5 million from October to May to destroy
144,000 birds characterized mainly as game fowl, including thousands of roosters
and brood cocks that agriculture officials believe were used for fighting.
"We reimbursed (bird owners) in the San Gabriel Valley, but as to what they do
with their birds we are not in the business of tracking of what they do with
their birds,' said Adrian Woodfork, a spokesman for the Exotic Newcastle Disease
Task Force.
"Do some people in the San Gabriel Valley have roosters? Yes. Do some have hens?
Yes, but in terms of us keeping track what it is they do with their birds, we
don't track that.'
The Agriculture Department paid $79.31 on average for each bird with some
roosters and brood cocks valued as high as $500, according to the records
obtained by The Associated Press.
That average was more than 27 times the average per bird $2.89 the government
paid to kill 3.7 million commercial birds, virtually all egg-laying chickens.
Overall, $22.3 million was paid to chicken ranchers and owners of backyard
flocks in the effort to eradicate Exotic Newcastle Disease. Newcastle can wipe
out entire flocks of poultry but is harmless to humans.
Exact payment figures for the San Gabriel Valley were not readily available,
said task force spokeswoman Maeve McConnell.
McConnell said 418 backyard cases were discovered in Los Angeles County as of
April 21, including four cases in Baldwin Park, which included three infected
premises; Hacienda Heights, where there were two cases and in El Monte, La
Puente and South El Monte.
"If there were any more there would just be a few. The last one found in Los
Angeles was May 31,' McConnell said. "In fact, that's the last time we found an
infected premise in California.
"Now, the focus has shifted to proving the disease is eradicated. Then, we can
start lifting quarantines,' McConnell said.
The payments, however, have drawn criticism from the Humane Society and
lawmakers who have sought to clamp down on cockfighting.
"I think it's inappropriate to be using taxpayer dollars to be paying for
cockfighting birds or to be supporting the cockfighting industry in any way,'
said Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., who is a veterinarian.
Cockfighting is illegal in California and all states except Louisiana and parts
of New Mexico.
Agriculture officials said they had no qualms about compensating people who
probably owned banned fighting birds, saying their sole mission was to eradicate
the disease.
"The whole idea of paying compensation is to give people incentive to
participate in the program,' Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said.
By some estimates, there are 50,000 illegal cockfighting locations in California
alone. And while California outlaws cockfighting, owning game cocks is legal,
said Steve Lyle, a spokesman for the California Department of Food and
Agriculture.
"By law, we're required to pay any individual who owns a bird that is taken ...
irrespective of what the bird is used for,' Lyle said.
Wayne Pacelle, vice president of the Humane Society, said paying owners market
value instead of prosecuting them tacitly encourages cockfighting.
"The breeding and fighting are inseparable because you have to demonstrate your
bird is a good fighter to get good value for it,' Pacelle said.
The handful of Californians who advertise in cockfighting publications were
unwilling to talk to the AP. The government withheld the names of all but
commercial bird owners.
Staff Writer Marianne Love contributed to this story.
Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, CA
http://www.dailybulletin.com/Stories/0,1413,203~21481~1501414,00.html
Officials laud Newcastle disease's decline
No Newcastle cases since May
By ALAN SCHNEPF
Staff Writer
July 9, 2003
After $188 million and more than 3 million dead chickens, agriculture officials
say they may be on the verge of obliterating an outbreak of exotic Newcastle
disease.
With no new cases found since May 31, the people in charge of eradicating the
outbreak are cautiously confident that the disease could be gone.
"Instead of trying to find the disease, we're trying to make sure the disease
isn't there," said Leticia Rico, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Food
and Agriculture.
Newcastle threatened to decimate the state's poultry industry if it spread over
the Tehachapis and into Central California's fryer flocks.
"If it would've moved north and even touched 25 percent of the (chicken meat)
industry, you're talking about millions of dollars. So it's huge," said Bill
Mattos, president of the California Poultry Federation.
Dozens of countries banned the importation of chickens from Southern California,
some banned all poultry imports from the United States.
The disease, which is harmless to humans, kills most birds that catch it. And it
spreads easily through birds' bodily fluids. Shoes, tires, contaminated coops
and even strong Santa Ana winds could spread Newcastle from flock to flock.
Carol Cardona, a poultry extension veterinarian at UC Davis, said the summer
heat played a role in Newcastle's dwindling presence, because the Newcastle
virus fares better in cold, wet weather. But the possible departure of Newcastle
only comes after it left a deadly mark on the Southern California's egg
industry, largely concentrated in San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
Since a bird in Compton was diagnosed with the ailment in late September, the
virus affected 22 commercial egg flocks, prompting authorities to kill all of
the birds at those ranches. By killing the birds, and prohibiting the movement
of birds out of a quarantine area that covered virtually all of Southern
California, officials hoped to contain the epidemic.
As many as 1,600 people nationwide worked on the task force earlier this year.
According to the state's count, those workers killed 3 million birds at 2,380
sites. All owners were compensated for their dead birds.
The task force's policy of euthanizing all birds at those sites cut a huge rift
between the government workers and people who lost beloved pets, such as parrots
and geese, to the task force. Several bird owners criticized the task force,
characterizing it as excessive, brutish and insensitive.
Eventually, the task force eased its policy, allowing bird owners to appeal and
show their pets weren't infected.
Alan Schnepf can be reached at (909) 335-9520.
San Bernardino County Sun, CA
http://www.sbsun.com/Stories/0,1413,208~12588~1502003,00.html
Newcastle battle at victory's door
Region's poultry malady becoming hard to
find, officials say
By ALAN SCHNEPF, Staff Writer
July 9, 2003
After nine months, $188 million and more than 3 million dead chickens,
agriculture officials say they may be on the verge of obliterating the region's
outbreak of exotic Newcastle disease.
Newcastle threatened to ravage the state's poultry industry if it spread over
the Tehachapi Mountains and into Central California's fryer flocks, authorities
said.
"If it would have moved north and even touched 25 percent of the (chicken meat)
industry, you're talking about millions of dollars. So it's huge,' said Bill
Mattos, president of the California Poultry Federation.
Dozens of countries banned the importation of chickens from Southern California,
some banned all poultry imports from the United States.
The disease, harmless to humans, kills most birds that catch it. And it spreads
easily through birds' bodily fluids. Shoes, tires, contaminated coops and even
strong Santa Ana winds can spread Newcastle from flock to flock.
But with no new cases found since May 31, the people in charge of eradicating
the outbreak are cautiously confident that the disease could be gone.
"Instead of trying to find the disease, we're trying to make sure the disease
isn't there,' said Leticia Rico, a spokeswoman for the California Department of
Food and Agriculture.
Carol Cardona, a poultry extension veterinarian at UC Davis, said the summer
heat played a role in Newcastle's dwindling presence, because the Newcastle
virus fares better in cold, wet weather. But the possible departure of Newcastle
comes only after it has left a deadly mark on Southern California's egg
industry, largely concentrated in San Bernardino and Riverside Counties.
Since a bird in the Los Angeles-area city of Compton was diagnosed with the
ailment in late September 2001, the virus has hit 22 commercial egg flocks,
prompting authorities to euthanize all birds at those ranches. By killing the
birds, and prohibiting the movement of birds out of a quarantine area that
covered virtually all of Southern California, officials hoped to contain the
epidemic.
A federal quarantine is still in effect. Rico, of Food and Agriculture, said
officials hope to lift it before the end of the year.
Mattos, of the poultry group, said the effort worked, and praised the joint
state-federal task force formed to wipe out Newcastle.
As many as 1,600 people nationwide were working on the task force earlier this
year. As of June 30, they numbered about 665. According to the state's count,
those workers killed 3 million birds at 2,380 sites. Owners were compensated for
their euthanized birds.
But not all the sites were verified as infected with Newcastle. Many were
classified by the task force as "dangerous contacts' backyard flocks that were
within one kilometer of an infected site.
The task force's policy of euthanizing all birds at those sites cut a rift
between government workers and people who lost beloved pets, such as parrots and
geese. Several bird owners criticized the task force, characterizing it as
excessive, brutish and insensitive.
Eventually, the task force eased its policy, allowing bird owners to appeal and
show that their pets weren't infected.
Task Force spokesman Adrian Woodfork said mistakes have been made during the
fight against Newcastle. But Woodfork said it would have been unreasonable to
expect a flawless performance. The urgency of containing the disease while
figuring out the best way to do it made it impossible not to err, Woodfork said.
Cardona said perspectives on the task force have become a polarizing topic among
bird enthusiasts.
"I think there's been a great deal of demonization or glorification of the task
force,' Cardona said.
In 1971, the last time Newcastle hit California, officials spent $56 million and
euthanized 12 million birds before the outbreak was quelled.
Cardona said there is a good chance the disease will strike again in another 30
years. Whoever is charged with stamping out that epidemic may not learn from the
mistakes of the the current task force.
But it's not just the task force that needs to learn, Cardona said. Bird owners
and veterinarians need to view poultry care more seriously, she said.
"There's not much a task force can do to stop a disease on a day-to-day basis.
It's what the owners do.'
North County Times, CA
http://www.nctimes.net/news/2003/20030708/61950.html
7/8/03
Survey: County free of Exotic Newcastle Disease
KATHRYN GILLICK
Staff Writer
San Diego County appears to be free of Exotic Newcastle Disease, according to a task force survey completed this past weekend.
During the survey, task force members went door-to-door testing birds for the disease, which affects all species of birds but is nearly 100 percent fatal to poultry.
The task force did not find any traces of the disease in the county, according to spokeswoman Leticia Rico, making it 98 days since the last time the disease was found here.
Even though San Diego County appears to be disease-free, Rico said the task force will not lift the federal quarantine that has prohibited the movement of birds out of the area since December.
The disease hit seven commercial ranches in San Diego County and several flocks of backyard birds. The commercial ranches are Ramona Egg Enterprises; the Armstrong Egg ranches on Cole Grade, Lilac and Mac Tan roads in Valley Center; the Fluegge Egg Ranch on Twain Way in Valley Center; the Ward Egg Ranch on Fruitvale Road in Valley Center; and Foster Egg Enterprises on Cole Grade Road in Valley Center.
Spokesman Larry Cooper said the survey did not include those commercial properties where the disease has been found, but that those sites would be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Statewide, 16 of the 22 commercial ranches that were found to have the disease have already been cleaned, disinfected and released from "strict quarantine," according to Cooper.
In San Diego, Ramona Egg Enterprises, Fluegge Egg Ranch and Foster Egg Enterprises have been released from "strict quarantine."
The task force kills all birds at a site where the infection is found, and so far, it has killed nearly 500,000 birds in San Diego County and 3.5 million statewide.
"We are very encouraged that incidents of the disease are dropping," she said.
The federal quarantine also includes all of Orange, Riverside, Imperial, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties and part of Kern County.
Similar surveys have been completed in Ventura and Imperial counties, and no new infections were found there, either, according to the task force.
She said the task force recently started surveying San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
Once all the surveys are done, the task force will decide where it can lift quarantines, she said.
According to the most recent figures, which were released May 28, the task force has spent $160 million fighting the disease.
Contact staff writer Kathryn Gillick at (760) 740-5412 or kgillick@nctimes.com.
NBC Sandiego.com, CA
http://www.nbcsandiego.com/health/2318959/detail.html
No More Newcastle?
Quarantine May Be Coming To End
POSTED: 1:10 p.m. PDT July 8, 2003
UPDATED: 1:23 p.m. PDT July 8, 2003
SAN DIEGO -- A recent survey of birds in San Diego County found no traces of
exotic Newcastle disease, which has forced a quarantine on poultry and other
birds across Southern California.
A state task force fighting the outbreak went door-to-door to test for the
disease in a survey that ended over the weekend, said Leticia Rico, a
spokeswoman for the task force.
Recent surveys in Ventura and Imperial counties also have failed to find the
disease. The task force is now surveying San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
More surveys will be needed before the force can decide whether it is
appropriate to end the quarantine, which has also affected Orange, Los Angeles,
and Santa Barbara counties and part of Kern County.
The disease, which isn't a threat to humans, is fatal to poultry and other
birds. Since it was discovered in the region in October, more than 3.5 million
birds likely to have been exposed to the disease have been destroyed.
The disease was found at seven commercial ranches in San Diego County and
several flocks of backyard birds. The recent survey did not include those sites,
but they will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, spokesman Larry Cooper said.
Statewide, 16 of the 22 commercial ranches where the disease was found have been
cleaned and disinfected, he said.
Newsday (Associated Press Article)
http://www.newsday.com/news/health/wire/sns-ap-bird-disease-cockfighting,0,5894110.story?coll=sns-ap-health-headlines
Feds Pay for Game Birds to End Disease
By MARK SHERMAN
Associated Press Writer
July 8, 2003, 3:20 AM EDT
WASHINGTON -- Fighting a devastating poultry disease, federal officials in
California paid premium prices to destroy birds probably used as fighting cocks.
Halting the infestation far outweighed concerns about dealing with outlaws, they
said.
The Agriculture Department spent $11.5 million from October to May to destroy
144,000 birds characterized mainly as game fowl, including thousands of roosters
and brood cocks that agriculture officials believe were used for fighting.
Those payments averaged $79.31 each, with some roosters and brood cocks valued
as high as $500, according to the records obtained by The Associated Press.
That average was over 27 times the average per bird -- $2.89 -- the government
paid to kill 3.7 million commercial birds, virtually all egg-laying chickens.
Overall, $22.3 million was paid to chicken ranchers and owners of backyard
flocks in the effort to eradicate Exotic Newcastle Disease. Newcastle can wipe
out entire flocks of poultry but is harmless to humans.
The payments drew criticism from the Humane Society and lawmakers who have
sought to clamp down on cockfighting.
"I think it's inappropriate to be using taxpayer dollars to be paying for
cockfighting birds or to be supporting the cockfighting industry in any way,"
said Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., who is a veterinarian.
Cockfighting is illegal in California and all states except Louisiana and parts
of New Mexico. In Oklahoma, voters approved a ban last year, but lawsuits by
gamefowl breeders have suspended enforcement of the new law in about 30 of the
state's 77 counties. The Oklahoma Supreme Court has been asked to decide the
constitutionality of the ban.
Federal law bans breeders from shipping fighting cocks even to states where
cockfighting is legal. Violation is a misdemeanor.
Agriculture officials said they had no qualms about compensating people who
probably owned banned fighting birds, saying their sole mission was to eradicate
the disease.
"The whole idea of paying compensation is to give people incentive to
participate in the program," Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said.
By some estimates, there are 50,000 illegal cockfighting locations in California
alone. And while California outlaws cockfighting, owning game cocks is legal,
said Steve Lyle, a spokesman for the California Department of Food and
Agriculture.
"By law, we're required to pay any individual who owns a bird that is taken ...
irrespective of what the bird is used for," Lyle said.
Francine Bradley, a poultry expert at the University of California, Davis, said
owners should get credit for contacting authorities when they saw outbreaks of
Newcastle in their flocks.
"If they wanted to, they could have moved these birds in the dark of night in
the backs of vans outside the quarantine area," Bradley said.
Just how the latest outbreak of Newcastle began last fall remains a mystery, but
officials said one theory is that fighting cocks were responsible.
"The fighting-bird theory is a real one because that activity involves the
movement of birds and because it's such a contagious disease" said Leticia Rico,
spokeswoman for the state-federal task force created to fight the Newcastle
outbreak.
The disease is caused by a virus found in the droppings, breath and eggs of
birds. Containing the disease is especially hard in California because many
people keep birds in their back yards.
The outbreak appears to be on the wane. The most recent case was found in a back
yard in Los Angeles County on May 31, Rico said.
When it was at its peak in late fall and again last winter, inspectors asked few
questions and did not coordinate with law enforcement.
"It does put us in an awkward position. I'll admit that," said Larry Hawkins, a
USDA spokesman in California. "We're accused of somehow supporting cockfighting.
We don't."
Wayne Pacelle, vice president of the Humane Society, said paying owners market
value instead of prosecuting them tacitly encourages cockfighting.
"The breeding and fighting are inseparable because you have to demonstrate your
bird is a good fighter to get good value for it," Pacelle said.
The handful of Californians who advertise in cockfighting publications were
unwilling to talk to the AP. The government withheld the names of all but
commercial bird owners.
Bill Mattos, executive director of the California Poultry Federation, said he is
not complaining about the discrepancy in compensation for commercial poultry and
backyard birds.
"It certainly is an issue that maybe should be discussed, but we should be
concentrating on getting rid of the disease. If we weren't paying them, we
wouldn't be finding them in a lot of cases," Mattos said.
Galveston County Daily News, TX
http://www.galvnews.com/story.lasso?wcd=11293
10 penguins find a home at Moody Gardens
By Nathan Smith
The Daily News
Published July 08, 2003
GALVESTON -- With temperatures on the island soaring into the upper 90s this
week, air conditioning is a must for all Galvestonians. Ten on the city's newest
residents, however, may run up quite a bill this summer -- they prefer to keep
things down around 30 F.
Those new residents are Chinstrap penguins, a species of Antarctic bird with a
thin band of black feathers on their faces that Moody Gardens is adding to its
aquarium exhibit. The penguins were born at SeaWorld in San Diego, and have been
sent to live in Galveston as part of a breeding-loan program between the parks
that has resulted in Moody Gardens receiving 40 new penguins from SeaWorlds
across the country.
Most of the Chinstraps were received in February, but the newest arrivals were
held back a few months because of health concerns.
"The reason that these 10 arrived so far behind the ones we received in February
was because of an Exotic Newcastle's Disease outbreak in California," said Greg
Whittaker, the animal husbandry manager at the Moody Gardens aquarium. "That's
something that can be very devastating to poultry, so the U.S. Department of
Agriculture is very careful about not introducing it into the domestic poultry
population. Every time it crops up, which is usually around every five to eight
years, they do a strict quarantine, so these (birds) were essentially held in
San Diego until they were satisfied with the testing done on them."
Although the new Chinstraps seem perfectly healthy, Moody Gardens will keep them
quarantined in a converted food storage refrigerator, where the birds have their
own pool and ice to play with, until 30 days after their arrival. The penguins
will then slowly be introduced to their new home in the main exhibit with their
fellow feathered friends.
The 10 new birds are expected to be fully acquainted in their new living space
by early August, which will boost the aquarium's total number of penguins to 30
King penguins and 40 Chinstraps.
"The chinstraps were a good choice for us to diversify with because they use the
water so much," said Whittaker. "We have one of the deepest penguin exhibits in
the world, and we were a little disappointed that the Kings weren't using that
water space as much as we'd hoped. The Chinstraps, though, are very aquatic, and
they've gotten the King Penguins more active as a result, too."
In fact, the aquarium staff hopes that the penguins are active enough with one
another to produce a new attraction at the park -- baby penguins.
"These birds were chosen because they're good breeders," said Jerri Hamachek,
the marketing and public relations manger at Moody Gardens. "We've been
successful in breeding the King penguins since they came here in 1999, and we
hope that the new environment will help get these new penguins kind of in the
mood to breed, too."
If the new Chinstraps work out at Moody Gardens as well as they're expected to,
the aquarium would like to add a third species to its penguin collection, as
well. For now, though, the animal care experts at the aquarium are patiently
waiting for the birds' quarantine to end, so that the penguins can be part of
guests' memories of the park.
"The guest experience is obviously what we're looking at," said Whittaker. "We
want to entertain people with the underlying goal of conservation education. We
don't want to beat people over the head with boring lessons; we want people to
come out here and have a good time and go away having learned something maybe
without even realizing it."
Press-Enterprise, CA
http://www.pe.com/ap_news/California/CA_Bird_Disease_Cockfighting_110793C.shtml
In bid to stop disease, USDA pays owners of fighting cocks
By MARK SHERMAN
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON
In its rush to stop a disease that was ravaging California's poultry industry,
the federal government paid about $11.5 million to compensate owners of
so-called backyard birds, including thousands believed to be fighting cocks.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture spent more than $22.3 million from October to
May to compensate chicken ranchers whose birds had to be destroyed to eradicate
Exotic Newcastle Disease.
Records obtained by The Associated Press under the federal Freedom of
Information Act show that the government killed 3.7 million commercial birds,
virtually all of them egg-laying chickens. Their owners received an average of
$2.89 a bird.
The other 144,000 birds ordered killed were characterized mainly as game fowl,
including thousands of roosters and brood cocks that agriculture officials
believe were used for fighting, a backroom sport that is illegal almost
everywhere in the United States. For these birds, the government paid an average
of $79.31 each, with some roosters and brood cocks valued as high as $500,
according to the records.
The payments are drawing criticism from the Humane Society and lawmakers who
have sought to clamp down on cockfighting across the nation.
"I think it's inappropriate to be using taxpayer dollars to be paying for
cockfighting birds or to be supporting the cockfighting industry in any way,"
said Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., who also is a veterinarian.
Allard was the prime sponsor of a measure that took effect in May to strengthen
a federal law designed to prevent shipment of fighting birds between states.
Cockfighting is illegal almost everywhere in the United States, but agriculture
officials said they had no qualms about compensating people who, they suspect,
owned fighting birds.
U.S. and California officials who have been working together to eradicate Exotic
Newcastle Disease in eight Southern California counties said their sole mission
is to stop it.
"The whole idea of paying compensation is to give people incentive to
participate in the program," Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said.
By some estimates, there are 50,000 illegal cockfighting locations in California
alone, where the spectacle is especially important in some immigrant
communities. Cockfighting remains legal in Louisiana, parts of New Mexico and
Oklahoma, where a voter-approved ban is being challenged in state court.
While cockfighting is illegal in California, owning game cocks is not, said
Steve Lyle, a spokesman for the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
"By law, we're required to pay any individual who owns a bird that is taken by
the task force, irrespective of what the bird is used for," Lyle said.
It also can be hard to distinguish a game cock used in animal exhibitions and
competitions from one bred for fighting.
Defenders of the centuries-old combat complain that the people who stage cock
fights are misunderstood.
"People say they shouldn't be paying indemnification, but I know of certain
large breeders in the quarantine area who breed game fowl and export them to
areas where it's legal," said Francine Bradley, a poultry expert at the
University of California, Davis. "They have employees, buy pharmaceuticals,
contribute to the local economy."
The new federal law bans breeders from shipping fighting cocks even to states
where cockfighting is legal. Violation is a misdemeanor.
Bradley said these owners contacted authorities when they saw outbreaks of
Newcastle in their flocks.
"If they wanted to, they could have moved these birds in the dark of night in
the backs of vans outside the quarantine area," Bradley said.
Just how the latest outbreak of Newcastle began last fall remains a mystery, but
officials said one theory is that fighting cocks were responsible.
"The fighting-bird theory is a real one because that activity involves the
movement of birds and because it's such a contagious disease" said Leticia Rico,
spokeswoman for the state-federal task force created to fight the Newcastle
outbreak.
The disease is caused by a virus found in the droppings, breath and eggs of
birds. An infected bird can pass the disease to others in their proximity.
Newcastle can wipe out entire flocks of poultry but is harmless to humans.
Containing the disease is especially hard in California's mild climate because
many people keep birds in their back yards.
The outbreak appears to be on the wane. The most recent case was found in a back
yard in Los Angeles County on May 31, Rico said.
When it was at its peak in late fall and again last winter, the disease moved
quickly as inspectors struggled to get it under control.
They asked few questions and did not coordinate with law enforcement.
"It does put us in an awkward position. I'll admit that," said Larry Hawkins, a
USDA spokesman in California. "We're accused of somehow supporting cockfighting.
We don't."
But Wayne Pacelle, vice president of the Humane Society, said the government
tacitly encourages cockfighting by paying owners market value instead of seeking
to prosecute them under state or federal law.
"The breeding and fighting are inseparable because you have to demonstrate your
bird is a good fighter to get good value for it," Pacelle said. "Individuals who
break the law should be prosecuted, not remunerated with taxpayer dollars."
Pacelle said the number of game fowl found by inspectors is an obvious tipoff
that cockfighting is widespread in the state because he said the number of
people who show those birds or keep them as a hobby is small.
The handful of Californians who advertise in publications dedicated to
cockfighting were unwilling to talk to The Associated Press. The government
withheld the names of all but commercial bird owners.
Bill Mattos, executive director of the California Poultry Federation, said he is
not complaining about the discrepancy in compensation for commercial poultry and
backyard birds, even if some of the recipients of government money are raising
fighting birds or taking part in cock fights.
"It certainly is an issue that maybe should be discussed, but we should be
concentrating on getting rid of the disease. If we weren't paying them, we
wouldn't be finding them in a lot of cases," Mattos said. "Don't make an
irrational decision based on how crazy it sounds."
He paused, then added, "And it does sound crazy."
Mercury News, CA
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/6245750.htm
Posted on Sun, Jul. 06, 2003
Activists push farm industry for changes at slaughterhouses
NADA EL SAWY
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES - The owners of a Southern California egg farm insist they didn't do anything wrong when they slaughtered 30,000 unproductive chickens by throwing them into wood chippers.
State authorities agreed, deciding in May not to file animal cruelty charges.
The decision has incensed animals rights advocates - and even some producers - who say it's the latest example of the need for stricter national laws and heightened enforcement to stop what they say is the inhumane slaughter of livestock.
"It's not what we do," said Paul Bahan, owner of AAA Egg Farms in Riverside County, who chairs an industry committee targeting treatment of poultry.
Amid a growing national push for better treatment of farm animals, the farm industry is enacting new guidelines for slaughterhouses and farms that will take into account everything from the size of cages to the ways animals are killed. Restaurant and grocery store chains are urging independent audits of the nation's 900 slaughterhouses, and the federal government is moving to hire more inspectors to monitor the facilities.
Critics, however, say the changes aren't happening fast enough.
During a hearing in May on agriculture appropriations, Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., called on the Agriculture Department to speed the hiring process for inspectors.
"Despite the laws on the books, chronically weak enforcement and intense pressure to speed up slaughterhouse assembly lines reportedly have resulted in animals being skinned, dismembered, and boiled while they are still alive and conscious," Byrd said.
Members of Congress also have received a video from Sen. Jim Moran, D-Va., actor Alec Baldwin and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Titled "Meet Your Meat" and narrated by Baldwin, the tape contains graphic images of cruelty at farms.
"Enforcement is the issue," Baldwin, a longtime PETA activist, told The Associated Press. "You live in a society where the USDA is the only barrier between producers and your food."
The American Meat Institute denied that enforcement at slaughterhouses is weak and that animals are routinely abused. Officials also pointed out that the plants can't operate unless an inspector is on the premises.
In the past decade, the processing and packing industry has taken a number of steps to improve animals' final moments, such as redesigning pens to accommodate natural movements and minimizing use of electric prods, American Meat Institute spokeswoman Janet Riley said. Such treatment is not only ethical, it's good business, she said.
"If an animal is stressed when it goes to slaughter ... it will emit hormones that create quality defects in meat that then has to be trimmed away," she said.
Ed Nicholson, a spokesman for Tyson Foods, one of the nation's largest poultry and meat producers, agreed.
"If wings are broken, if chickens are bruised, then those parts can't be used," he said.
Each year, 8 billion chickens and turkeys, 97 million hogs, 35 million cattle, 3 million sheep and lambs and 1 million calves are slaughtered in the United States.
Larger animals are usually killed with a gun that shoots a rod directly into the brain. Chickens are typically stunned in an electrified bath before their heads are cut off with a rotating blade. Others have their necks broken or are suffocated with carbon dioxide.
The 45-year-old federal Humane Slaughter Act offers guidelines on slaughter methods but only requires that animals be rendered "insensible to pain" before being killed. It excludes poultry from that requirement. State laws vary on cruelty to animals.
In the wood chipper case, the USDA did not approve the slaughter method, said Ed Lloyd, a USDA spokesman. The decision on filing charges, however, was up to the San Diego County district attorney's office, which declined after determining there was no criminal intent by the owners of the farm, Arie and Bill Wilgenburg.
"I've done nothing wrong and I stick by that, and I won't say anything else about it," Bill Wilgenburg said.
Officials have said the brothers acted on the advice of a veterinarian after an outbreak of a bird virus, Exotic Newcastle Disease, forced a quarantine and kept the poultry from being sent to a slaughterhouse.
While the case is unusual, animal welfare advocates say it nonetheless shows that farmers are seldom held responsible when animals are subjected to unnecessary pain and suffering.
The USDA reported that from January 1998 to January 2003, 21 of the nation's slaughterhouses were cited for violations related to mistreatment. The agency says the relatively low number of citations shows enforcement methods are working.
"We make our living by selling cows. We don't make our living by abusing them," said Arthur Green, whose Benton Packing Co. in Springdale, Ark., was cited last year for having too many cows in one pen.
Two years ago, Congress directed the secretary of agriculture to increase enforcement after numerous violations were detailed in media reports about the $133 billion processing and packaging industry. In one case, the government allegedly took no action after a Texas beef company was cited in 1998 for allegedly chopping hoofs off live cattle and committing other violations.
As part of the farm bill signed two years ago by President Bush, $5 million was allocated to add at least 50 more slaughterhouse inspectors to aid the 6,500 now on the job.
USDA spokesman Steven Cohen said the new inspectors have not yet been hired because the funds were not released until February.
"We're moving as quickly as we can," he said.
Seventeen veterinary specialists have been hired in recent months to verify that animals are being handled humanely.
Animal rights advocates say the Humane Slaughter Act itself needs to be revamped, and consumers seem to agree. A Gallup poll released last month found that most Americans support passing strict laws for farm animal treatment.
"One of the problems with the way the law is written is that it's very vague," said Temple Grandin, a Colorado State University professor of animal science and a pioneer in the science of animal welfare. "A lot of it gets into the inspector's judgment and interpretation."
Slaughterhouses also are being pressured by farm industry groups working with the National Council of Chain Restaurants and the Food Marketing Institute to ensure humane treatment of animals going to slaughter.
The effort has led to a voluntary audit program in which slaughterhouses will pay an initial $550 fee to have independent inspections. Results will then be made available to restaurant and grocery chains. Among other things, audit criteria require that 98 percent of poultry be properly stunned and that cage sizes for poultry be increased by 2008.
In a separate program backed by 10 animal welfare groups, Humane Farm Animal Care, a nonprofit group based in Herndon, Va., is starting to inspect slaughterhouses for compliance with American Meat Institute standards.
Slaughterhouses that pass the audits can then market their meat, poultry, dairy and egg products with labels reading, "Certified Humane Raised and Handled." The products could start appearing in supermarkets this summer.
"They want to be able to look anyone in the eye - a reporter, a consumer, a CEO of a major market chain - and say, 'Look, we don't engage in any cruel practices,'" said Bahan, owner of the Riverside County egg farm. "We don't want to be tarnished by the practices of a few."
Victorville Daily Press, CA
http://www.vvdailypress.com/cgi-bin/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1057328232,50662,
Friday, July 4, 2003
Task force trolls for birds
Survey team goes door-to-door in Hesperia checking live poultry for Exotic
Newcastle Disease
By CHRISTINA L. ESPARZA
Staff Writer
HESPERIA - Armed with disinfectant and fliers, members of the Exotic Newcastle
Disease Task Force survey team knocked on doors and checked for live poultry
Thursday in Hesperia in an effort to lift the county's quarantine.
The reported numbers of sick poultry and fowl have been decreasing in the state,
said Leticia Rico, spokeswoman for the task force. If the crew tests about 400
poultry and fowl in eight counties and they test negative for the disease, they
hope to lift the quarantine.
Exotic Newcastle Disease has caused the deaths
of about 3 million birds since October, and the outbreak prompted the state to
suspend poultry displays at county fairs this year.
"I don't think the disease is
here," said Gianni Cortez, one of the
surveyors.
It's possible the quarantine could be lifted statewide by December, Rico said,
but "nothing is set in stone."
For Hesperia resident Mark King, the lifting of the quarantine will come too
late for his more than 100 rare and exotic turkeys.
"I had to kill all my birds because I couldn't afford them anymore," King said.
"I held off for as long as I could," he said, explaining that it cost him
between $500 and $800 a month to feed them.
King raised the turkeys and sold their eggs, mostly via the Internet. However,
the quarantine put the kibosh on his business, which he estimated would have
brought in about $14,000 since the quarantine's implementation. The value for
the loss of his stock was about $25,000.
"It probably would have been a profitable year," he said.
In March, a few cases of Exotic Newcastle Disease were found in backyard coops
in Hesperia. However, surveyors say the infection rate was so low they will
probably not be coming back and testing any birds.
It has been 57 days since the task force has found an infected property in San
Bernardino County, and the number of quarantined areas statewide has dropped by
about 4,000 to 21,750, a decrease of about 15 percent, Rico said.
Las Vegas Sun, NV
http://www.rgj.com/news/stories/html/2003/07/03/46073.php?sp1=rgj&sp2=News&sp3=Local+News
Brief news stories from Las Vegas
7/3/2003 04:25 pm
Market-Slaughter
LAS VEGAS (AP) _ The City Council has approved an ordinance allowing grocery stores and other businesses to slaughter chickens onsite, despite objections from residents and bird owners.
Supporters of the proposal told council members during Wednesday's hearing that fresh chicken is an essential ingredient in many foods enjoyed by Hispanics.
"The use of fresh poultry in the Hispanic community has a long tradition,"said Aldo Aguirre, vice president of the Guatemalan Unity Committee, which represents between 10,000 and 12,000 Guatemalans living in Southern Nevada."It makes a difference."
The ordinance requires stores to obtain a special permit before slaughtering chickens, imposes a 50 fowl limit and prohibits stores from keeping chickens overnight or selling live birds.
Bird owners said they feared live chickens trucked into the area for slaughter could transport illnesses such as the Exotic Newcastle Disease, which recently led officials to kill more than 1 million birds in California and hundreds in Southern Nevada.
But officials with the Clark County Health District endorsed the ordinance, saying the birds and the stores would be carefully monitored by federal, state and county agencies.
San Diego Union Tribune, CA
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20030702-9999_7m2new.html
No new exotic Newcastle cases reported in a month
UNION-TRIBUNE
July 2, 2003
It has been nearly a month since the last reported case of exotic Newcastle
disease, the fatal avian virus that infected the flocks of 22 poultry ranches in
Southern California.
Twelve of those commercial ranches, including ones in Ramona and Valley Center,
have been released from infected status and are being cleaned, disinfected and
tested. The sites remain under quarantine.
The outbreak was confirmed in chickens in the L.A.-area city of Compton last
October and quickly spread to neighboring counties and into Arizona and Nevada.
A state and federal task force ordered 3.2 million birds destroyed in an effort
to stop the disease from spreading. Six poultry ranches in Valley Center were
infected, as was one in Ramona.
The task force included U.S. Department of Agriculture employees and private
veterinarians from across the country and totaled 1,600, but as the spread of
exotic Newcastle slowed, many were sent home. The task force now numbers about
750.
Los Angeles Daily News, CA
http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~20954~1488973,00.html
Backyard bird quarantine lifted
By Rachel Uranga
Staff Writer
July 2, 2003
SIMI VALLEY -- The quarantine on backyard birds and poultry has been lifted by
the Exotic Newcastle Disease Task Force after tests for the highly contagious
virus came back negative, officials said Tuesday.
The quarantine was imposed around three homes after the disease was discovered
in a flock off Adam Road three months ago. It was the only such find in Ventura
County, and officials destroyed 260 pet birds, chickens and doves as a result,
said Larry Cooper, a spokesman for the joint state and federal task force.
"Most people around here are very pleased," said Theresa Venti, owner of
Theresa's County Feed and Pet Store, who lost 20 percent of her store's profit
after she had to get rid of highly susceptible poultry and pet birds.
"It's quite a big relief, but it's still to soon to tell what will happen," she
said.
Owners of birds still cannot transport animals over county lines, but they can
take their pets to the veterinarian.
So far, 3,600 of the 18,000 backyard quarantines have been lifted in the
eight-county quarantine area, representing slow progress in the eradication of
the disease, Cooper said.
Roughly 21,000 commercial flocks in the eight-county area remain under
quarantine, officials said.
Officials have said the highly contagious and fatal virus can wipe out
unvaccinated poultry flocks and place even vaccinated ones in danger.
So far, the state has spent $160 million on the eradication effort.
If all goes as expected, quarantine should be lifted in the eight-county region
in two to six months.
Ventura County Star, CA
http://www.insidevc.com/vcs/sv/article/0,1375,VCS_239_2079720,00.html
Simi Newcastle quarantines lifted
Curbs against taking birds across county lines remain in effect
By Roberta Freeman, freeman@insidevc.com
July 1, 2003
Officials with the exotic Newcastle Disease Task Force said Monday that
quarantines in Simi Valley have been lifted, although the restrictions against
transporting birds across county lines remain in effect.
Bird owners under quarantine received information in the mail Friday, notifying
them that bird breeding and routine activities, such as visits to a veterinarian
with pet birds, could return to normal. Three homes in Simi Valley were
quarantined on March 31 and April 1 after an outbreak of the disease was
discovered among a backyard flock on Adam Road. A total of 260 assorted
chickens, waterfowl, doves and pet birds were killed to stop further spread of
the disease.
"I am very happy," said Lianne Bondurant, who had birds quarantined.
While relieved to be returning to normal, Bondurant said she will not feel truly
relieved until the quarantine is lifted from the entire state.
"Still, it's not the emergency it was," Bondurant said.
Larry Cooper, spokesman for the joint task force of the state Department of Food
and Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said samples taken from
birds in eight counties in Southern California are being tested and may result
in lifting the statewide quarantine by the end of July.
"We don't have a firm timetable yet -- the other counties are looking good,
too," Cooper said.
He noted the quarantine is still in effect for pet stores, which had been asked
to stop selling birds to prevent spread of the disease or agree to a range of
conditions for selling them. Doves, considered to be carriers, have been removed
from shop inventories.
During the first two weeks in June, the task force had conducted a countywide
survey, going door-to-door in and around the communities of Oxnard, Port
Hueneme, Fillmore, Ojai, and Santa Paula. Officials said it was one last test to
make sure the disease was gone.
Though the virus poses no threat to humans, aside from possible eye infections,
exotic Newcastle is fatal to chickens, ducks, exotic birds and waterfowl. The
disease is highly contagious and has killed more than 3.5 million birds in
California since September. The disease is spread by general traffic in and
around homes and neighborhoods -- on the feet, clothes and nasal passages of
humans, on tires, and by vermin and pets.
Poultry exhibits have been prohibited at county fairs this year to eliminate any
further risk of contamination, and Cooper said he is uncertain whether fairs
later this year might reinstate the poultry exhibits if the quarantine is
lifted.
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