bl^Lbricaiter 1 fofoilfig, 'March "20 1993
Poultry Science
Penn State
f Poultry \\ j
1 Pointers ’ 1
Agricultural & Biological Engineering Agricultural Economics
AVIAN INFLUENZA:
REDUCING THE
RISKS OF
INTRODUCTION TO
YOUR FLOCK
Patty Dunn, DVM
Dept, of
Veterinary Science
As of March 12, 1993, the facts
concerning evidence of avian
influenza (AI) in Pennsylvania are
as follows;
1. We are not experiencing an
outbreak of clinical AI in Pennsyl
vania. This means that we current
ly do not have birds that are sick
and dying from AI infection.
2, Live AI virus of the H 5 sub
type has been isolated from 2 pre
mises one of which is a Phi
ladelphia live bird market (now
closed) and the other is a very
recent isolation from a poultry pre
mise in eastern Pennsylvania (now
quarantined). Isolation of live vir
us means that virus may be active
ly circulating, with potential for
spread to other birds and premises.
3. Birds with antibody to AI vir
us of the H 5 subtype have been
limited to less than 10 premises
which include the Philadelphia
live market. The presence of anti
body is indirect evidence that virus
was present in the bird for a period
of time, probably within the last
several months. It does not mean
that the bird is now actively
infected and a potential spreader of
disease. However, the environ
ments of birds that have been
infected with virus may still con
tain some active virus particles.
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These premises have been further
monitored by virus isolation
attempts.
4. All flocks that are antibody
positive, all premises that are virus
isolation positive, and all Pennsyl
vania live bird markets are under
quarantine at this lime.
5. Birds from nonquaranlincd
premises in Pennsylvania may be
moved to recognized slaughter
establishments.
6. Outside of Pennsylvania, AI
virus has been isolated in several
New York and New Jersey live
bird markets. This is very good
evidence that H 5 AI virus is circu
lating in the live bird marketing
system in the Mid-Atlantic region.
The importance of this informa
tion is that we need to recognize
that we arc in a potentially danger
ous situation with regard to our
commercial poultry flocks. Fortu
nately, the H 5 virus that was iso
lated at the Philadelphia live mark
et has not been found to be a highly
lethal strain, but we know AI vir
uses can change character quickly.
A fairly harmless type can become
a highly dangerous type if allowed
to circulate in our bird populations
unchecked. Therefore, since most
of our flocks, especially our larger
commercial enterprises, are cur
rently free of AI, we need to take
strict precautions to keep it that
way.
How can we reduce the risk of
bringing A 1 into our poultry
flocks? The answer can be
summed up in one very important
word BIOSECURITY! Biose
cunty in the current sense means
keeping our flocks away from the
virus, and the virus away from our
'eterinary Science
flocks
ll may be helpful to think of
biosecurity, or disease prevention
measures, as very similar to crime
prevention measures taken to les
sen the risk of a prowler breaking
into your home. What might hap
pen if prevention measures are not
taken? Let’s think of the situation
in terms of the following
analogies:
Crime deterring measures =
Biosecurity
Your home = Your poultry flock
Evidence of break-in = Clinical
disease signs (may not be present)
Prowler = Vims
Fingerprints = Antibody
Police = Animal health profes
sionals (company, regulatory,
university)
Crime lab
laboratory
Prison = Quarantine
Police watch = Surveillance or
monitoring program
Diagnostic
Neighborhood watch = Industry
vigilance
This is the situation; You have
been lax about certain safety pre
cautions such as keeping your
home well-lit, trimming the front
shrubbery, and putting good locks
on doors and windows and remem
bering to use them. You come
home at night after being away all
day. You enter the house and
notice a few things just aren’t right
perhaps some belongings are
out of place, or you see a muddy
footprint that you know wasn’t
there when you left. You might
suspect that a prowler has broken
in. What you do not know at this
point are the following: 1) Is the
intruder still in the house? 2) Who
is he? 3) How dangerous is he? For
these reasons, you would be
advised to leave, get to a phone,
and call the police. You would not
be advised to go in to look for the
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intruder yourself or re-arrange any
of the evidence. Nor should you
call your neighbor over to check
out die house with you, because
that would put you both at risk.
When the police come, they can
look for the prowler, and if they
find him (virus isolation), deter
mine how dangerous he is. They
can also examine the evidence he
left behind. Even if the intruder is
no longer on the premise, he has
most likely left some fingerprints
(antibody) bclynd that the crime
lab can analyze and specifically
link to his identity. Either way, the
criminal, if still in the area, may be
caught and locked up in prison
(quarantine) so he won’t visit any
one else. With a good policeman
walking the beat (surveillance
program) and an ongoing neigh
borhood watch (industry vigi
lance), this type of event should be
less likely to occur. If it does occur,
it would be less likely to become a
widespread problem.
Vour responsibility as a poultry
producer is to keep the virus from
“breaking in” to your flock. Com
mon sense biosecurity measures
should be practiced. These include
the following:
1) Control the movement of
people, poultry and equipment to
prevent farm to farm contact.
Don’t allow unnecessary traffic of
any of these on your premise.
2) Pay strict attention to sanita
tion of anything or anybody that is
on or comes on to your farm. You
and any necessary visitors should
sanitize bools and wear clean pro
tective clothing around your birds.
Sanitize all vehicles, tires, and
equipment. When possible, prac-
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tice all in-all out management, and
clean and disinfect all poultry
houses before bringing in new
birds,
3) Keep out wild or migratory
birds and avoid any contact with
them.
4) Don’t deal directly or indi
rectly with live bird markets.
5) Promptly investigate any
signs of disease in your flock, and
stop bird movement until AI has
been eliminated as a possible
cause.
Another important part of biosc
curity is monitoring for disease or
disease-causing agents. We need
to keep looking for virus and anu
body to the virus in order to know
that our flocks are remaining free
of AI.
Participation in the AI Surveil
lance Program currently in place in
our state is crucial. The submission
of blood or dead carcasses from
market birds and blood, dead car
casses or eggs from breeders and
layers to the diagnostic laborato
ries for antibody testing is the basis
of the program. Many companies
are participaung in the program,
but all poultry producers need to
submit samples if we are to get
good information that is represen
tative of our Pennsylvania poultry
populations.
It is important to remember that
we are now in a position to prevent
introduction of virus into our poul
try flocks. To do this, we must
cooperate with all segments of the
poultry industry in practicing
biosccurity. The bottom line is that
disease, like crime, doesn’t pay,
but disease prevention does!