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San Bernardino, CA
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Article Last Updated: Friday, October 04, 2002 - 12:12:06 AM MST |
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Fowl disease found in county Poultry owners issued warning Ag riculture
officials put poultry owners on alert Thursday after confirming that
a potentially devastating disease killed about 200 birds in Southern
California recently.
Larry Hawkins, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, said Exotic Newcastle disease has not made its way into
commercial flocks. But it has killed birds at five sites in Los
Angeles County and one in west San Bernardino County.
Hawkins said officials are keeping the precise locations a secret
to prevent tampering as officials eradicate the disease. Although
many breeds of birds can contract the disease which is spread
through feces and air poultry, especially chickens, are susceptible
to Exotic Newcastle disease.
It can be passed on to humans, but only under extreme
circumstances, said Carol Cardona, a poultry extension veterinarian
at UC Davis.
For a human to get the disease, he or she would have to
experience close, extended exposure to a diseased flock of birds,
such as killing a flock of diseased birds, Cardona said.
The general public need not worry about about getting it from
their food, she said.
"There's no way somebody's going to get it from eating an egg or
something,' Cardona said.
Hawkins said state and federal agriculture officials are
scrambling to launch a pre-emptive strike to contain the disease
before it can spread.
Because the disease has not infected commercial birds, the
efforts are focused on those who own a few birds, such as someone
with a chicken coop in his or her back yard.
Commercial poultry ranchers typically go to great lengths to
quarantine their birds from outside diseases.
So far, the California Department of Food and Agriculture has
suspended poultry exhibitions at local fairgrounds, and poultry
owners are being asked not to move their birds and cages.
Selling a cage with a trace of infected feces could help spread
the disease, for instance. Bird owners also are encouraged to avoid
swap meets where poultry are sold.
Jim Hoover, a Yucaipa egg rancher, said he is all too familiar
with the effects of an outbreak of Exotic Newcastle.
"We are all aware of it and very concerned,' Hoover said. "It's a
very frightening thing. We were de-populated by this disease twice.'
"De-populate' is a polite term for government-controlled mass
killings of the birds to stymie the spread of the disease.
The two de-populations Hoover went through were part of
devastating outbreaks during the 1970s. He said he lost hundreds of
thousands of chickens.
Symptoms of the disease include sudden death, discoloration of
the head, greenish diarrhea and sneezing or gasping for breath.
Poultry owners concerned about the disease can call the USDA at
(800) 419-1899 for more information.
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