US Might Consider State-Wide Farm Quarantines For Bird Flu

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US Might Consider State-Wide Farm Quarantines For Bird Flu

WASHINGTON (Dow )--In the event of a dire situation with

multiple outbreaks of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu in poultry

flocks, the U.S. Department of Agriculture could decide to enact a

state-wide quarantine on poultry farms, a USDA official said at a

U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee hearing Thursday.

Ron DeHaven, administrator of USDA's Animal and Plant Health

Inspection Service, or APHIS, said a large-scale quarantine would

restrict the movement of birds. Also, " equipment, feed trucks,

anything that would be coming on and off a poultry premise ... would

not be allowed to move " unless a permit was issued " and then only

after proper cleaning and disinfection, " he said

People working on quarantined poultry farms would be expected to

change clothing and disinfect footwear before leaving.

A state-wide quarantine would be an " extreme " situation, DeHaven

said. The more likely scenario would be a targeted quarantine of a

single premise. In such a case, USDA would set up two zones of three

kilometers and 10 kilometers out from an infected flock.

The immediate zone, DeHaven said, would " restrict all movement from

poultry farms, " and the larger zone would be put under " surveillance "

for the virus.

The H5N1 bird flu that has spread from Asia to Europe and Africa

hasn't been found in the U.S., but DeHaven stressed to senators that

the USDA, and other government agencies are monitoring potential

entryways as well as preparing for its arrival.

DeHaven wouldn't comment on the likelihood of H5N1 infecting U.S.

flocks, but stressed to reporters that USDA is surveying migratory

wild birds and looking for it in illegal imports.

Customs and border agents seized 129 shipments of poultry from

countries known to have had H5N1 outbreaks in fiscal year 2005,

DeHaven said. There have been 63 such seizures this year.

" For planning purposes, we absolutely have to plan for the worst

and...our assumption is that the virus is going to arrive and we need

to be able to respond, " DeHaven said. " Whether the chances are one-in-

10 or one-in-10-billion, we're preparing as if it could arrive

tomorrow. "

USDA's primary reaction to finding an H5N1 infection in a U.S. farm

would be to kill all of the birds in the affected flock.

The virus, according to USDA and other U.S. government agencies, is

still primarily a bird disease but it has killed people who have had

direct and prolonged contact with infected birds. The H5N1 virus so

farh as killed 114 people, mostly in Asia.

The threat of pandemic comes from the possible mutation of the virus

into one that can be easily transmitted between humans - something

that has not happened and might not happen.

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.,

said: " While the arrival of the H5N1 virus in America is not a

certainty, it is in the best interest of all Americans that we

operate under the assumption that it will arrive...If the H5N1 form

of (bird flu) should appear in America tomorrow, it would not signal

the onset of a human pandemic. The disease is first and foremost an

animal disease. "

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