U.S. Farmers to Begin Testing Chickens for Flu

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U.S. Farmers to Begin Testing Chickens for Flu

By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

In an effort to head off an epidemic of dangerous bird flu, the

nation's chicken farmers will immediately begin testing nearly all

flocks for influenzas, an industry trade group announced yesterday.

The National Chicken Council said that poultry-processing companies

that control about 90 percent of the nation's chicken production had

joined the program. By Jan. 16, they are to start testing about 1.6

million birds a year, a council spokesman said.

A poultry expert, Carol Cardona, said the decision " makes perfect

scientific sense " in that it creates a system for spotting mutating

influenza strains and could help avert panics over routine flus that

affect birds.

However, Dr. Cardona said, the surveillance program might not speed

farmers' ability to spot the dangerous H5N1 flu strain that has

killed millions of chickens in Asia and 76 humans.

The H5N1 strain is so lethal that if it reaches the Americas, it is

likely to be detected soon anyway because it will probably kill the

entire first flock it infects.

" There's no producer on this planet that's going to accept 100

percent mortality without notifying someone, " said Dr. Cardona, a

poultry veterinarian at the University of California, .

At the Agriculture Department, the chief of the Animal and Plant

Health Inspection Service, W. Ron DeHaven, agreed that " any blip in

bird mortality " would alert poultry farmers that the H5N1 strain had

arrived. But Dr. DeHaven added that " any surveillance in avian

influenza is a good thing. " The chicken industry's program is

stricter than his department's voluntary one, he said.

Flus are common in birds, and most produce only respiratory symptoms,

leaving the birds safe to eat once they recover. Lethal strains are

already legally " notifiable " diseases, meaning that a farmer or a

veterinarian who finds them in a flock must notify state

veterinarians, who must in turn notify the United States Department

of Agriculture.

" But we're not waiting for signs to show up, " said Lobb, a

chicken council spokesman.

Under the program, chicken farmers, most of whom raise flocks under

contract with major processors like Tyson Foods or Pilgrim's Pride,

will take swabs or beak samples from 11 chickens in each healthy

flock. Any suspicious results found in local laboratories will be

sent on to a U.S.D.A. laboratory in Ames, Iowa, for confirmation, Mr.

Lobb said.

Because a flock of broilers goes from hatchlings to slaughter in as

little as seven weeks, the industry produces about 150,000 flocks a

year, Mr. Lobb said. Each will be tested about two weeks before

slaughter.

If any H5 or H7 strains of virus are found, the flock will be

destroyed on the farm, he said, and all flocks in a two-mile radius

will be held for weekly testing.

There is no H5N1 flu in the Western Hemisphere now, global health

authorities say. The most likely possible sources of introduction are

thought to be birds smuggled in for the pet trade or for

cockfighting, or migratory birds, particularly ducks and geese that

mingle in the Arctic nesting grounds with birds from Asia and then

fly southward along the Pacific Coast in the spring. (If the flu

mutates into a strain that passes easily between humans, however, the

most likely introduction source will be a jet passenger, doctors say.)

More than 99 percent of the chickens consumed in the United States

are raised here, the chicken council said, and the rest are imported

from Canada. Commercial chickens, including many of those advertised

as " free range, " are raised in hangar-sized barns and, if they ever

go outside, are kept away from wild birds by netting.

Some chickens are raised in backyard flocks or as pets, and remain a

greater risk because they can mingle with migrating birds. State

agriculture laboratories encourage owners to take them in for

voluntary testing.

The chicken industry has been working for about two years on a flu-

testing program, Dr. Cardona said. Chicken flocks that get mild flus,

she said, are usually quarantined until they recover and then sold

for food.

The surveillance program " means more H5's and H7's will be found, "

she said. She noted that an outbreak of mild H5N2 flu in domestic

ducks in Canada just before Thanksgiving caused a brief public panic

before it was made clear that it was not the dangerous H5N1 strain.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/06/national/06chicken.html