NEWCASTLE DISEASE, GAME FOUL, POULTRY - USA (CA) (09)
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A ProMED-mail post
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International Society for Infectious Diseases
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Date: 19 Feb 2003
From: ProMED-mail <promed@promedmail.org>
Source: Union Tribune [edited]
<http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/northcounty/20030219-9999_1mi19ranch.html>


3rd county ranch has deadly poultry virus; 69 000 birds must be destroyed 
at new site
------------------------
The county's poultry ranchers have been fiercely guarding their birds 
against a fatal avian virus for months, but officials announced yesterday a 
third commercial ranch had been infected with exotic Newcastle disease.

About 69 000 birds will be destroyed at the site of the newest outbreak. 
The ranch is close to a Valley Center ranch owned by Armstrong Farms that 
tested positive for the virus last week, sources said.  But officials with 
the state and federal Exotic Newcastle Disease Task Force, following a 
long-standing policy, would not disclose its name or location.

At the Armstrong ranch, on Cole Grade Road, state and federal workers 
wearing white disposable suits went about the process of euthanizing its 
150 000 birds yesterday.

Ranch owner Alan Armstrong, like other ranchers in the county and 
elsewhere, had been following strict bio-security measures since the 
outbreak of exotic Newcastle was confirmed in a backyard flock of chickens 
in Los Angeles County in October 2002.  But it seems that even the most 
careful security is no guarantee the virus won't somehow creep onto a ranch.

"It's just that constant threat. It's so nerve-wracking," said Frank 
Hilliker of Hilliker Egg Ranch, which has about 30 000 birds in 
Lakeside.  "Every time the federal people come and the state people come to 
take some birds to the lab, the anxiety goes up," Hilliker said of the 
weekly testing by the task force. It is done at each commercial ranch in a 
quarantine zone covering 8 Southern California counties and 2 counties in 
Arizona and Nevada.

Commercial ranches have reduced the traffic onto their ranches, allowing 
access only to those people who must be there, such as task force members 
and ranch workers. Every truck is disinfected, as are visitors' shoes.

The Fluegge Egg Ranches maintain about 60 000 chickens at a ranch in Valley 
Center and about 95 000 at an Escondido facility.  August Fluegge Jr., who 
owns the ranch with his father, August Sr., said he spends about $50 a week 
on disinfectant.  But the bigger burden is the extra labor, Fluegge said. 
"Every time a truck comes in, we spray it, and we spray all our racks," he 
said. "What really costs is all the time to do everything."

The disease, which is harmless to humans, appeared in San Diego County late 
in December 2002, when it was detected in a flock of 73 000 chickens at 
Ramona Egg Enterprises in Ramona.

There have also been 3 cases of exotic Newcastle in backyard flocks of 
birds in the county.

The outbreak is the worst since exotic Newcastle last spread through 
commercial chicken ranches in the 1970s, when it took officials 3 years to 
eradicate the disease.  About 12 million birds were destroyed and $56 
million spent on the effort before the outbreak was contained.

The current outbreak has already cost the state and federal governments 
about $35 million. The disease's spread has prompted authorities to order 
the destruction of 2.6 million birds, and the task force has pleaded with 
bird owners to follow safety precautions such as keeping pet birds isolated 
from other birds.

Information on safety precautions can be found on the California Department 
of Food and Agriculture's Web site:
<http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/>

A fourth round in a series of aerial treatments of pesticide in a 
28-square-mile core area of the quarantine zone was scheduled for last night.

The quarantine requires growers to repeatedly treat their crops with a 
pesticide-laced bait before they can pick and ship any fruit.

[Byline: Elizabeth Fitzsimons]

--
ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>

[see also:
Newcastle disease, game fowl, plty. - USA (CA) (08) 20030211.0373
Newcastle disease, game fowl, plty. - USA (CA) (07) 20030210.0361
Newcastle disease, game birds, poultry - USA (CA) (06) 20030209.0353
Newcastle disease, game birds, poultry - USA (CA) (05) 20030117.0145
Newcastle disease, game birds, poultry - USA (CA)(04) 20030116.0129
Newcastle disease, game birds, poultry - USA (CA)(03) 20030108.0060
Newcastle disease, game birds, poultry - USA (CA) (02) 20030104.0021
Newcastle disease, game birds, poultry - USA (CA)      20030103.0014
Newcastle disease, game fowl, plty. - USA (CA,NV) (02) 20030204.0304
Newcastle disease, game fowl, poultry - USA (CA, NV)      20030127.0246
2002
----
Newcastle disease, game birds, poultry - USA (CA)      20021228.6147
Newcastle disease, game birds - USA (CA) (11) 20021221.6104
Newcastle disease, game birds - USA (CA) (10) 20021216.6077
Newcastle disease, game birds - USA (CA) (09) 20021208.6014
Newcastle disease, game birds - USA (CA) (08) 20021203.5958
Newcastle disease, game birds - USA (CA) (07) 20021125.5893
Newcastle disease, game birds - USA (CA) (06) 20021112.5780
Newcastle disease, game birds - USA (CA) (05) 20021101.5689
Newcastle disease, game birds - USA (CA) (04) 20021026.5646
Newcastle disease, game birds - USA (CA) (03) 20021019.5603
Newcastle disease, game birds - USA (CA) (02) 20021012.5533
Newcastle disease, game birds - USA (CA): OIE      20021004.5468
..............................mpp/tg/pg/dk




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