Avian Influenza and Small Flock Biosecurity

Whether we belong to 4 Chesapeake Hens, Hampton Roads Hens, or some other group, regional chicken keepers want to keep our backyard micro-flocks healthy. My husband, Don, and I attended a presentation in Suffolk on Wednesday with information on how to do that. The presenter was Dr. Tom Ray, DVM, MPH, VMO/Epidemiology, a veterinarian  who specializes in livestock. Aaron Miller, an AHT veterinary technician from Virginia Beach, assisted him. Both work with the USDA, a government agency, to raise public awareness to prevent the spread of communicable diseases in poultry and livestock.

A major concern right now is Avian Influenza or Bird Flu. It thrives in cooler temperatures and in humid environments and survives freezing. Wild birds carry it, particularly waterfowl, often without showing symptoms. It then gets spread by people and equipment, particularly on shoes and vehicles. There are two kinds: "low path," and "high path," depending on how pathogenic  the disease is. Low path is common, and an owner might not know their bird(s) have it unless they are tested, but the viruses mutate easily and can mutate into the high path type.

High path spreads rapidly, has a high mortality rate, and has a severe impact on trade, pets, backyard flocks, and exhibition birds. A recent outbreak of high path avian influenza was first detected in the U.S. in December of 2014 and ended in June of 2015. It affected 211 commercial flocks, 21 backyard flocks, 5 captive wild-bird facilities, and 100 wild birds in 21 states, mostly in the Mid-West, and cost over one billion dollars plus the lives of almost fifty million turkeys and chickens. Egg prices spiked last spring because of a resulting national shortage of commercial eggs.

Dr. Ray showed slides of turkeys infected with the disease. They suffered terribly, and all died within 24 hours of contracting the disease. The birds practically liquify; he says they are all feather and bones and liquid after 24 hours. (Eww!)

The scary part is there's a possibility the disease could hit the East Coast as waterfowl migrate this year. Officials are testing waterfowl like crazy and so far have only found low path, but flocksters need to keep in mind that can change.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The official term for prevention is "biosecurity." The main ideas are to keep a line of separation between your flock and possible vectors of disease, prevent contamination, and maintain cleanliness. The USDA has a fantastic website with all the details for backyard poultry keepers, so I won't repeat it here, but I urge readers to visit the site for more details.

Dr. Ray recommended cleaning all hard surfaces like shoes to remove mud or organic debris and then using a bleach solution or even Lysol to disinfect. Follow the recommendations on the Lysol can and read labels carefully: some types of Lysol work faster than others. A separate set of clothes and boots for visiting the hen house is also a good habit.

The USDA urges us to report sick birds. Due to the threat of high-path bird flu, the agency is taking calls of a dead chicken or two even more seriously than in the past. Please realize that pathologists prefer freshly dead or almost dead animals for necropsy and testing. Symptoms of avian influenza include swollen and purple-looking wattles and combs. Other symptoms are almost identical to Exotic Newcastle Disease. Watch for:

• a sudden increase in deaths in a flock;
• sneezing, gasping, coughing, and nasal discharge; 
• watery and green diarrhea; lack of energy and poor appetite; 
• a drop in egg production or soft- or thin-shelled, misshapen eggs. 

Report sick birds to:

1. Your local Cooperative Extension Office,
2.  Your local veterinarian or State Veterinarian, or
3. The USDA Hotline at 866-536-7593. The USDA will come out for free and test your birds and take information from you to keep in a government database in case of future outbreaks.

 Speaking of the government, here is what the investigators will do if they first find a confirmed positive case of high-path avian influenza on a farm or other premises:

1. Set up a control zone for a ten-mile radius and a buffer zone outside of the control zone.
2. Set up movement restrictions into and out of the control zone with extra biosecurity measures
3.  Test everything within it. 
4. Depopulate infected flocks; see below.

 In the buffer zone, the government will test birds for free with your permission, but within the control zone, the government will test birds (again for free) with or without the owners' permission. This is allowed under Virginia state law.  Inspectors will go door-to-door looking for flocks. If a bird turns up positive for high path, they will "depopulate," meaning kill, the flock using fast and humane methods. Large factory-farms and large backyard flocks are suffocated en mass using a foam; backyard micro-flocks of five to ten birds are preferably wrapped in a towel to keep them calm and gassed with CO2 for ten to fifteen minutes. The incubation period for the disease is five days, so the last 5-10 day's worth of eggs must also be sought out and destroyed.

I know this idea is stressful for those of us who love our birds, but please realize the flock will NOT survive the high-path virus, the birds will suffer terribly dying, and while they die they will shed massive amounts of the virus. They will increase the risk of contaminating other flocks the longer they live. What seems cruel is actually an act of mercy and a prudent course of action. The government tries to depopulate the flock within 24 hours of receiving a positive result to minimize both suffering and the spread of disease. There is an indemnity process through which the government will pay for the death of live animals. The best way to avoid this awful scenario is to practice good biosecurity. Read these 6 Simple Steps we all can follow to keep our birds safe and healthy.

 We asked about the safest way to dispose of a dead chicken in general. Dr. Ray said the virus and other chicken diseases do not survive heat very well, so he recommends disposing of them in a burn barrel.

We should all follow good biosecurity practices. Even if we trust that nature and good care will protect our flocks, we should have a plan to "step up to" if high-path avian influenza is reported on the East Coast in the coming months.  As a public service, Wendy Camacho of Hampton Roads Hens has promised to make USDA-approved materials available at workshops and other events in coming months.

Thank you, Carol Bartram of PeCK, for organizing this important presentation for us.

Athena the Hen Visits the Vet

When you have backyard hens, one of the things you need to decide is to what extent these animals are for  food, and to what extent they are pets.

If you have hens mainly for the meat or even the eggs, then you will by necessity take a rather hard-nosed attitude towards birds that are aging, injured or sick. You will treat what you can with the help of extension agents or possibly veterinary diagnostic laboratories. You will want to treat birds as inexpensively as possible and will plan to cull (kill) birds that are old or otherwise beyond home treatment. If a bird dies suddenly, you might even perform your own necropsy. If the bird is healthy at the time she is culled, you will probably eat her. Hens that are past their prime as layers often make great soup, or so I'm told.  But truly sick birds need to be humanely culled and disposed of quickly and in a way that will minimize not only suffering but potential transmission of disease to the rest of the flock or to other animals.

If, like Don and I, you keep backyard hens  for not only eggs, but fertilizer for the compost pile, help with gardening tasks, and hours of entertainment, you may decide, like we did, that the hens are more pets than livestock. Ours have not only names, but personalities, too. We aren't competent enough to doctor them ourselves, so if our hens are sick, we plan to take them to a veterinarian.

 Athena, our Delaware, developed chronic loose stools ever since she molted back in late October or early November. I also feared she might be losing weight. My husband and I both thought she'd seemed lighter than last summer, and I noticed her breastbone stuck out more prominently than our other hens'. Because they are prey animals, chickens, like other birds, tend to hide signs of illness instinctively as a way of discouraging potential attacks by predators. By the time they actually show obvious signs of illness, they are usually extremely sick.

We decided not to risk this with Athena. Luckily, we have a great veterinarian  in Dr. Tony Poutous of Midway Veterinary Hospital  in Chesapeake, Virginia. He treats exotic animals including various types of birds and even chickens. When we brought our first three chickens home back in February, we made an appointment with Dr. Poutous for an initial exam and health check, so I knew he could tell us if she had lost weight since then.

The staff at Midway Veterinary Hospital in Chesapeake is ready to check us in

My husband, Don, waits with our hen (in a pet carrier) for our turn in the examining room

Even though Athena grew up on a farm, she is, like most chickens, an extremely good patient. It is particularly easy to get a stool sample from chickens, for example, because they poop a lot. Besides weighing her and taking a stool sample, Dr. Poutous gave her a careful physical exam. He did note that her stools were loose, although not alarmingly so.

Dr. Poutous' assistant takes down details for Athena's records before she weighs her.

Athena seems to like the scale and spent quite a bit of time there after being weighed.

Dr. Poutous arrives with a smile.

The doctor gets to work examining the patient; Don looks on.

Athena's loose stools were easy to observe (on the scale and on the examining room floor)

Much to our relief, Athena had actually gained a little weight since last spring, about 1/4 pound. Dr. Poutous still feels she's a little underweight, and he suspects she may have gained over the summer and then started losing weight again, since our impression was that she was heavier last summer. Her overall health and respiration seemed good upon examination. There were no parasite problems from the stool sample.

But she did have signs of a slight bacterial infection with clostridium. Dr. Poutous said that these bacteria are plentiful in soil. Since chickens live low to the ground and scratch in soil a lot, they tend to get exposed to it. He said it usually doesn't cause problems in them unless their immune systems are weakened or they suffer from stress. We had mentioned that Athena seemed to have a hard molt and that she'd been working harder than usual to maintain her status at the top of the pecking order in our flock. He suspects that these might be the kinds of stresses that could have allowed the bacteria to multiply to the point that they are giving Athena trouble.

Unlike other family pets, chickens produce food (eggs) and are potentially food (meat). Because of this, a veterinarian needs to be mindful of laws regarding use of medications in chickens. Luckily, Dr. Poutous knows his stuff. He said Athena needed an antibiotic, and he prescribed one (Metronidazole) that is safe and legal for use in chickens. He also gave us a withdrawal (discard) time of one month for Athena's eggs. This means nobody is allowed to eat her eggs for a month after she finishes her antibiotics, just to be on the safe side.

This is not a problem, because none of our girls is laying right now. They are heritage breeds, we do not supplement their light in the winter, and so they are taking a natural and much-needed break from laying. By the time they resume in the spring, we are hoping Athena's bout of poor health will be far behind her. Besides, we suspect Athena does not lay, anyway.

 By the way, according to Chicken Health for Dummies, "extra-label drug use in food-producing animals by anyone other than a licensed veterinarian is illegal. Some drugs are completely prohibited for food-producing animals--even veterinarians can't prescribe them for chickens. Examples of drugs on the no-no list are popular dog and cat antibiotics enrofloxacin (Baytril) and cephalexin (Keflex)." This is under U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rules.

Dr. Poutous had already warned us never to use Baytril in chickens, and I assured him that I would never give our hens an antibiotic without checking with him first. It really helps to have a diagnosis rather than playing guessing games with drugs and antibiotics, which can do more harm than good if misused.

So we feel his services are worth the money.

Sometimes friends or neighbors want to buy our eggs. I just laugh when they ask. The way we treat our hens, there's no point in charging for the eggs. We give eggs away or freeze them when we have extra. Competent veterinary care like what Athena gets from Dr. Poutous is not inexpensive. The examination, fecal analysis, and medication cost $129.00. He also wants a call if Athena does not improve, or if the loose stools come back.

Will do! We enjoy our birds and want to do right by them.

Update on 1/12/14: Athena seems back to her normal self, bossing the other hens around. Her stools are much better, so we are hoping she is cured for the long run. Thanks, Dr. Poutous!