FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 17, 2003
REYNOLDSBURG
– Following reports today that a highly contagious viral disease in birds has
spread from California into Nevada, Ohio Agriculture Director Fred Dailey
recommended poultry farmers and other bird owners implement several biosecurity
precautions to minimize the possibility of contracting the disease in their
birds.
Exotic
Newcastle Disease can be fatal to all species of birds but is particularly
devastating to poultry, infecting an entire flock in three to four days. If a
poultry flock in Ohio were to become infected, it would be quarantined
immediately by animal health authorities and would likely be ordered destroyed
to contain the disease. This is a reportable animal disease in Ohio, meaning
that anyone suspecting its presence here is required by law to report it to
animal health authorities. The
24-hour toll-free disease reporting line at the Ohio Department of Agriculture
is 1-800-300-9755. To submit
samples for testing, persons may contact the department’s Animal Disease
Diagnostic Laboratory at 614-728-6220.
Although
people may become infected with the virus, the resulting disease is typically
limited to conjunctivitis (“pinkeye”), and recovery is usually rapid, with
virus no longer present in eye fluids after a week. Infections have occurred
mostly in lab workers and vaccination crews, with rare cases in bird handlers.
No instance of transmission to humans through handling or eating poultry
products is known.
Dailey
offered this flock management advice to poultry producers:
·
Look for symptoms in your flock, including respiratory (sneezing,
gasping, nasal discharge, and coughing); digestive (greenish, watery diarrhea);
and nervous (depression, muscular tremors, and drooping wings); as well as loss
of egg production, sudden death, and increased death loss in a flock. Immediately
report signs of infection to your veterinarian or to the Ohio Department of
Agriculture.
·
People can carry the virus from an infected flock to a healthy one on
vehicles, shoes, clothing, sacks, egg trays, and crates. Avoid traveling in
quarantined areas in California and Nevada, states where Exotic Newcastle has
been detected. If you absolutely must travel there, be sure to wash and
disinfect vehicles and shoes and launder clothing before returning home.
·
If you know you have been in a poultry house in an outbreak area or
otherwise exposed to the virus, do not enter another poultry house for three
days.
·
Keep unauthorized visitors out of poultry houses – a good practice
whether there is a disease threat or not. Make sure authorized persons wear
protective clothing and shoes before entering a house.
·
If persons must enter your poultry houses – such as industry or utility
service people, regulatory inspectors, feed trucks, or mortality collectors –
keep a record of who they are, their telephone numbers, where they last visited,
and where they’re going next.
·
Wear poultry-house shoes and clothing only in poultry houses and nowhere
else. Change clothes before going to another multi-house complex on the same
farm.
·
Avoid contact with wild waterfowl – they may be carriers of Exotic
Newcastle. Keep waterfowl away from poultry houses and do not dress waterfowl
anywhere on a poultry farm.
·
Because they present an increased risk of Exotic Newcastle exposure,
avoid contact with backyard flocks of chickens, ducks, geese, and other birds.
Avoid contact also with live-bird markets, swap meets, and poultry exhibitions,
or wait three days to re-enter your poultry houses.
·
Do not borrow or loan farm vehicles or equipment without cleaning and
disinfecting before and after use.
Dailey also offered this
advice to pet bird and backyard poultry enthusiasts:
· Get certification from suppliers that birds were brought into the state legally, were healthy prior to shipment, and were transported in disinfected containers.
· Maintain records of all purchases and shipments of flocks.
· Isolate all newly purchased birds for 30 days.
·
Restrict movement of people between new and old birds.
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Media
Contact: Mark Anthony or Melanie Wilt, ODA Communications, 614-752-9817
For more information on this disease and efforts being made to control it, go to this USDA web page: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/lpa/issues/enc/exoticnc.html.