Delmarva Poultry Outlines Flu Procedures

GEORGETOWN - Feb 11/04 - SNS -- Delmarva Poultry Industry, Inc has released an update on the H7 strain of avian influenza discovered in the state of Delaware during the past week, including advice on how to prevent the spread of the disease from the infected operations.

Bill Satterfield of Delmarva Poultry Industry, Inc. writes:

This discovery means all persons having anything to do with Delmarva’s chicken industry need to make significant changes to their standard operating procedures to limit and prevent the spread of the virus. Business as usual will not work. We are in an emergency situation and everyone’s cooperation is needed. Shown below are minimum emergency steps that should be taken. Each poultry company and grower might have additional biosecurity measures in effect.

Companies, agencies, organizations, and individuals that provide products and services to chicken farms should stay off farms unless they absolutely have to be there. This is recommended for all Delmarva chicken farms. Business that can be conducted on the telephone or via e-mail should be done that way.

Non essential deliveries and repairs should be postponed until the situation improves.

If services such as chicken house equipment repairs are absolutely necessary, as determined through a prior conversation between the service provider and the grower, service providers need to park as far away from the chicken houses as possible, wear disposable biosecurity clothing that is to be left on the farm prior to exiting the farm, and clean and disinfect all equipment and materials taken into and out of the chicken houses. Bleach and Lysol spray are effective disinfectants.

Growers need to be vigilant in keeping persons off their farms, including news reporters. They should post DPI Restricted No Admittance signs (available free of charge from the DPI office) or Do Not Enter signs. If essential visitors are allowed, growers need make sure they are practicing good biosecurity. Growers need to keep a log of who visits and when, where they were prior to arriving, and where they are going next. This information could be a key in stopping disease spread.

Unless absolutely necessary, all persons in the chicken industry (growers, suppliers, poultry company employees, etc.) should avoid meetings or gathering points with other persons in the chicken industry, including visits to farm supply stores and companies providing products and services to poultry farms. If such meetings/visits are essential, persons need to wear clean clothing from their homes or offices and wash clothing as soon as possible upon their return. The avian influenza virus is easily carried by manure, feathers, dust, clothing, humans, and many other mechanisms. Businesses dealing with poultry growers should have disinfectant footbaths at their entrances. The water and disinfectant should be changed daily.

All persons in the chicken industry that go into chicken houses should avoid contact with wild waterfowl. Wild waterfowl can be carriers of the AI virus. Growers need to make sure carcasses are properly composted to avoid viruses being carried by buzzards and other scavengers.

Electric companies throughout Delmarva should avoid traveling farm to farm for meter readings. They need to develop another system of meter reading during this emergency. If service is required, they need to follow the recommendations listed below.

All vehicles going onto poultry farms (gas delivery trucks, emergency equipment repair vehicles, feed trucks, chick delivery busses, etc.) should, if practical, clean tires and undercarriages of vehicles just prior to leaving the farm. If drivers of such vehicles must exit the vehicle but do not go into the chicken houses, at a minimum they need to wear disposable boots they then leave on the farm.  

  Gas delivery personnel should, in addition to the steps listed above, use hand sanitizer as well as disposable boots.  Gas trucks should make deliveries inside the two mile radius from an AI positive farm the last delivery of the day. The names and locations of those farms can be obtained from the poultry companies’ live production offices. In some cases, poultry company personnel are being directed to be on the farm when service vehicles arrive. Prior to the visit, gas companies need to check with growers on their gas needs. If the delivery can be postponed until the emergency is over, it should be. Gas companies should also check with growers on additional biosecurity procedures.

In an area north of U.S. Route 50, poultry growers should not remove any litter/manure from chicken houses until at least March 10. In this same area, poultry growers with stored manure should not spread any of it until at least March 10. If there is another poultry farm positive for avian influenza, this ban on manure removal and spreading will be peninsula-wide. In areas where manure can still be removed and spread, companies and individuals in the chicken house cleanout business need to transport cleaned and disinfected equipment between poultry farms. Growers have a responsibility to make sure the equipment is clean.

Organizations and companies planning meetings to be attended by poultry growers and others in the industry should consider canceling these meetings until the emergency is over. There is too much at stake to risk having such meetings.

Poultry growers have every right and a responsibility to keep unwanted persons, including news reporters, off their property. If persons are trespassing, call your police agency, report such trespassing, and seek immediate help in having those persons removed. Persons deliberately or unwittingly might be moving disease agents from farm to farm.

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