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LIVE AT IPE -- DAY THREE
 
Exotic Newcastle 'wake-up call' for poultry industry, vet warns

ATLANTA -- Speaking to a relatively small audience of industry veterinarians and production managers, Dr. Richard Breitmeyer of the California Department of Food and Agriculture warned that the current crisis surrounding an outbreak of exotic Newcastle disease (END) could get even more complicated.

"We have an extensive high-risk situation because of the concentration of poultry in the four affected counties [in California]," Breitmeyer said. "There is a serious situation here that has deteriorated during the past six weeks."

Breitmeyer's remarks came during a special program on the last day of the International Poultry Exposition held here last week.

Since the initial diagnosis in a game fowl flock in October 2002, the disease has spread among backyard poultry flocks, exotic specialty birds and fighting cocks in four Southern California counties, and on Dec. 19, 2002, END to commercial laying hens. According to Breitmeyer, by Jan. 23, some 7,000 premises had been quarantined and more than 75,000 non-commercial birds destroyed.

The magnitude of the problem lies in the estimate of 50,000 owners holding, fighting and breeding about three million game fowl in Southern California alone. Deficiencies in biosecurity and a failure to maintain the quarantine and the embargo on movement of birds places the entire California commercial flock -- 24 million egg-producing hens, 38 million broilers and 8 million turkeys -- at risk.

"We really have a challenge," said Breitmeyer, citing communications problems with the East Los Angeles Hispanic community that owns game fowl, as well as the logistical problems of detecting infected flocks, confirming a diagnosis of END and destroying the birds. He outlined the Incident Command Response Function, established to contain and eradicate the outbreak and emphasized the need for active surveillance and restriction of bird movement egg-packing equipment among commercial units.

As of Jan. 20, 2003, six farms housing 1.8 million hens have been depopulated.

The bottom line message from the program is that the federal authorities from USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services and California officials are apparently going to replay the 1971 scenario, in which eradication of END required three years and involved the destruction of 12 million commercial hens and other birds at a cost of $60 million. The regulators do not seem to appreciate the economic impact of a prolonged eradication campaign and the inevitability of the disease continuing to spread, given the certainty of endemic infection of the backyard and game-fowl population.

Now is the time for evaluation of the realities of the situation and the application of basic epidemiological principles relating to immunization. Experience with END in South Africa, Great Britain and elsewhere suggests that federal officials are following King Canute in trying to reverse the tides.

There is an emerging rift between knowledgeable egg-industry veterinarians who favor quarantine, limited depletion and intensified vaccination, and regulatory veterinarians, who are pursuing a "traditional" program of detection and slaughter.

The situation demands a reappraisal of the effectiveness of vaccination for all flock -- both large and small -- and flexibility with regard to depletion of commercial poultry farms. Recent experiences during 2000 in controlling avian influenza in Italy and foot-and-mouth disease in Great Britain have demonstrated deficiencies with draconian program of detection and eradication. In fact, Britain and other European Union countries will apply vaccination as the principal control measure in future outbreaks of these catastrophic animal diseases.

This observer could not discern even the slightest "light at the end of the tunnel" message from Breitmeyer's IPE presentation. With no clear indication of how and when the END outbreak will be eradicated, or the parameters of "victory," the Southern California egg industry should recognize its collective vulnerability and move to enhance both vaccination and biosecurity.

The California broiler industry located north of the Tehachapi range is currently unaffected, but movement of poultry along Interstate 5 must be controlled as an adjunct to heightened biosecurity measures to prevent introduction of END infection.