Bird flu threatens Maine egg industry

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WASHINGTON – When the port of Shanghai first opened to foreign shipping in 1843, American sailing ships traveling from Boston to China for silk and spices would carry back a crate of red-, black- or cinnamon-colored chickens to provide eggs or the occasional chicken dinner for the long trip home.

But unlike the white or tan-colored eggs the mariners were used to, these birds laid an egg with a rich brown hue. In China, white symbolizes death or funerals.

New Englanders fell in love with brown eggs because they were fresher than the white eggs that took a long while to arrive from the Midwest. Brown eggs eventually became a dietary staple in the region, and Maine has become the No. 1 producer of brown eggs in the world. Brown eggs are now the third-largest agricultural product in the state.

Today, the country that introduced brown eggs to Maine has the potential to introduce the agent that could be responsible for their demise: a highly virulent strain of avian influenza virus known as H5N1. Avian influenza is the umbrella term for a large group of viruses that affect birds. While much attention has focused on the possibility that bird flu could endanger human lives, less has been paid to the economic consequences of an outbreak in the U.S. poultry industry.

“Sadly, we’d be looking at the end of our brown egg industry here in the state of Maine” if the bird flu hit, said Shelley Doak, director of the division of animal health and industry at the Maine Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Resources.

In 2004, egg production in Maine generated $61.4 million in cash receipts, according to the New England field office of the National Agricultural Statistics Service.

Nationally, it could cause “severe damage to the poultry industry,” said Dr. Michael Opitz, Extension veterinarian emeritus at the University of Maine in Orono.

The value of all egg production nationwide in 2004 was $5.3 billion, according to the National Agricultural Statistical Service. Broiler chickens, turkey and egg production had a combined value in 2004 of $28.9 billion.

If the virus were found in a commercial flock, international organizations would need to be notified and U.S. poultry exports would be banned. Over the last decade, exports have represented between 10 and 15 percent of the total value of poultry and poultry products of U.S. origin, according to Agri Stats, a statistical research and analysis firm serving agribusiness companies.

“That would be killer to the poultry industry in Maine,” Opitz said. But he cautioned: “We shouldn’t get paranoid about it and throw a lot of money just at avian influenza. There are many other issues we have to deal with.”

H5N1, or bird flu as it is commonly known, was first detected in China nine years ago in a farmed goose. Since then the virus has killed large numbers of wild birds and domestic poultry in Asia and parts of Europe. In birds, it has spread as far west as Central Europe. It may make its way to the United States in less than a year, according to Don Hoenig, Maine’s state veterinarian. No cases of bird flu have been confirmed in birds or humans in the United States.

If bird flu comes to this country, it is unlikely to arrive first in Maine because the state is not traversed by any major flyways for birds, according to Opitz. Migratory waterfowl, however, could transmit the virus through secretions and feces. Many commercial farms have ponds where ducks or geese stop, Hoenig said. Domestic chickens could come into direct contact with contaminated bird droppings or farm workers carrying the virus in the form of manure on their shoes could track it into a bird house. Trucks could transmit the virus from one farm to another. “It could come in a million different ways,” Doak said.

“If you’ve ever been around chickens, they love manure,” said Dennis Avery, director of global food issues at the Hudson Institute, a nonpartisan research organization that promotes global security. “They love partially digested grain.”

Brown egg farmers are highly centralized in Maine. The big commercial operations are located in proximity to one another, for the most part in Turner, Winthrop and Leeds.

Many state officials and industry leaders agree that because of commercial poultry’s history with other strains of avian influenza and the strict biosecurity measures in place on commercial farms, not to mention the fact that birds are kept indoors, they have only a small risk of contracting H5N1 from migratory birds. But should it happen, bird flu “would most likely move quickly through the barns,” Doak said. Highly virulent strains of avian influenza have the potential to kill 90 to 100 percent of a flock in two days, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Once in the state, bird flu could wipe out Maine’s entire brown egg industry in a matter of weeks, according to Hoenig.

Even if the government paid for the lost chickens through indemnity programs, during the time farmers were out of birds, “they’d have to try to supply their market with brown eggs through some other source, and there’s nobody else that produces as many brown eggs as we do,” Hoenig said.

“Everything in agriculture has a ripple effect,” Hoenig said. One major feed company provides feed for the birds, and it too would suffer from the effects of bird flu. Similarly, many dairy farms rely on manure from Maine’s chicken farms to fertilize their fields, and their business would be affected. Then there are all the people who work indirectly with the farms, such as electricians, Hoenig said.

The commercial poultry industry is familiar with avian influenza, having battled highly pathogenic, or virulent, strains of it in Pennsylvania in 1983.

Industry and government officials say they feel confident about the security of commercial chicken farms. Since 1998, Maine has monitored the commercial poultry industry for avian influenza by testing a percentage of birds in a flock before the birds go out to slaughter, Hoenig said. The state also conducts sick-bird surveillance at the diagnostic laboratory in Orono, and it monitors brown egg breeder flocks every three months. A breeder flock produces fertilized eggs that are then hatched and go on to become the new brown egg laying hens.

David Radlo, president and CEO of Radlo Foods, an organic and commercial egg producer based in Watertown, Mass., with commercial brown egg farms in Leeds and Turner, Maine, said he is not concerned about the threat of bird flu because of the rigorous safety protocols already in place. “We are prepared as we can be and we continue to be vigilant,” Radlo said. “This is our livelihood.”

In the poultry industry, methods to secure henhouses from disease are known as “biosecurity.” A “biosecure” farm is likely to have a fence around it to regulate comings and goings, a protocol to disinfect vehicles coming onto the farm, and a policy mandating workers wear protective clothing, such as coveralls, boots and hats. Poultry houses also are usually kept locked.

Dennis Bowden has a midsize commercial brown egg farm in Waldoboro, Maine, with 10,000 layers. He protects the hens from disease by not allowing outside visitors. Anyone who walks into the henhouse must walk through a sponge soaked with a disinfectant to sanitize shoes. Bowden said he also puts chicken wire on the eaves of the henhouse to prevent wild birds from nesting there.

But some poultry experts and industry members are concerned about the growing number of organic farmers. To be certified organic, poultry farmers must allow their fowl some degree of outdoor access, according to Barbara Haumann, senior writer at the Organic Trade Association. Being outdoors may make the animals more likely to have contact with migratory waterfowl droppings than are indoor commercial birds.

In 2003 there were 1.6 million organic layer hens in the nation, up from roughly 44,000 in 1992. There were 6.3 million broilers in 2003, up from about 17,000 in 1992, according to the economic research service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Organic poultry sales in the United States as a whole are projected to grow 33 percent each year from 2004 to 2008.

Radlo’s chickens have outdoor access. The birds, however, are screened off with fences and netting so they cannot come into contact with migratory waterfowl, said William Bell, general manager for the New England Brown Egg Council. Radlo Foods is a member of the council.

“Tell me how a net is going to prevent wild bird droppings from infecting an outdoor poultry flock,” the Hudson Institute’s Avery said.

Previous cases of avian flu in the United States all have occurred in confinement flocks, said Jim Riddle, immediate past chair of the National Organic Standards Board, a Department of Agriculture advisory board that reviews and approves substances that can be used in organic farming. More research is needed on how susceptible outdoor birds really are to H5N1 before making any decision about how effective nets are in keeping out disease, he said.

In Maine, there are only about 20 or 30 organic poultry farmers, but there are hundreds of “backyard farmers” who raise anywhere from two to 100 chickens, often outdoors, to use for broilers, eggs or to compete in shows.

Unlike commercial poultry, backyard poultry receive no testing for disease. Interstate regulations that apply to larger commercial farmers also do not affect them, Doak said.

Backyard farms are “irresponsible,” Radlo said, adding, “You’re asking me where do I think the outbreak is going to occur, and I’m telling you it’s in backyard flocks.”

State veterinarian Hoenig has a backyard flock. “How much risk are my 11 or 12 backyard hens to get [bird flu] and spread it? Very, very minimal right now,” he said. Still, Hoenig acknowledged that the H5N1 threat might rise next year when migratory waterfowl could fly into the United States down the flyways.

The Department of Agriculture has discussed implementing new testing of backyard farms, but decided it does not have the resources for it. In recent months, however, the department has escalated communications with the poultry industry about biosecurity, has had more contact with backyard farmers through Maine’s Alternative Poultry Association, and has met with other state agencies involved in influenza planning. The state now monitors wild birds only for West Nile virus, but it is establishing a protocol to monitor wild birds for avian influenza.

Nationally, the United States does not import poultry products from Southeast Asia.

If H5N1 appeared in Maine, the state’s instant management and emergency response teams would go into action, along with special federal animal inspection teams, Hoenig said.

The U.S. secretary of agriculture also could declare a state of emergency and allocate emergency funds.

“We’d probably have a lot of people coming in here from all across the country helping out,” Hoenig said.

Opitz said that the U.S. and Maine departments of agriculture worked well together in 2002 to handle the low pathogenic avian influenza outbreak in Warren. But asked how well-prepared the nation and state would be for H5N1, he was less sure.

“I don’t have a good feel for how effectively, with the available means, we really could deal with that,” he said.

Areas where the state is vulnerable, Opitz said, include auctions, places to go to buy live poultry, and live bird markets, where a person can purchase poultry and have it slaughtered on-site. Live bird markets have been a cause for concern among national experts because of the many species that come together, potentially leading to the spread of disease from contaminated equipment, vehicles or people coming back from live bird markets

There are no live bird markets in Maine, but many of the state’s “spent layers,” or hens past their laying prime, are sent to live bird markets in other states such as New York or Boston. Hoenig said that his office has worked closely with the individuals who are involved in the markets, meeting with them and talking about reducing the risks.

Last November, President Bush issued a proposal requesting $7.1 billion in emergency funding from Congress to prepare the nation for and to protect it from pandemic influenza. Under the plan the states would receive $100 million collectively to help them revise and test their state’s emergency avian influenza response plan. The money has not yet been approved by Congress.

“If they pass the president’s initiative, that would be a big help,” Hoenig said. “If we actually get some money, we [could] actually hire somebody to do what Shelley Doak and I have been trying to do for the past couple of years, and that is sit down and update these plans.

“You’re talking about 3 million birds or more,” Hoenig said. “It’s a huge logistical issue.”