Biosecurity Critical to Poultry Industry, Food Supply

Biosecurity Critical to Poultry Industry, Food Supply

By Delaware Congressman Mike Castle

"No new positive tests" has become the slogan of positivity in recent days in Kent and Sussex Counties. Since the outbreak of avian influenza in a commercial and non-commercial poultry flock earlier this month, we continue to wonder what future tests might reveal. The stakes are high-the poultry industry is crucial to the economy in these counties and the entire Delmarva Peninsula.

Home to Allen Family Foods, Mountaire Farms, Perdue Farms, Tyson Farms, and many more independent farms, Delaware is one of the largest chicken producers in the nation. Sussex County ranks first among America's counties in broiler chicken production and Delmarva Peninsula is home to a $1.8 billion poultry industry.
One thing is for certain, despite how hard these economic losses will be to the industry, the Delmarva Peninsula is fortunate not to be facing the avian influenza strain Asia is currently facing-a more dangerous form of avian flu which is rising to epidemic proportions and affecting humans. It is important to reiterate that through this outbreak in Delaware, human health was never at risk .

And the industry, the poultry farmers themselves, Secretary of Agriculture Michael Scuse and the federal agencies are to be commended for their impressive coordination and hard work to address avian influenza in these flocks. The infected birds were appropriately isolated and destroyed, the farm was quarantined and testing began. They rightly took the necessary preventative efforts as well by educating the public about this disease. They have done a thorough job of explaining the testing procedures, the results and what they mean to the general public, especially every day poultry consumers.

A major, unresolved question is what was the exact means of transmission of the virus to Delaware and how can we limit the spread of it in the future? There is no silver bullet solution, but we must be willing to discuss a variety of options spanning the entire process of breeding birds to bringing them to market in order to keep Delaware and the Delmarva region in its current, superior role in the market place. I commend the Delaware General Assembly for creating a task force to review this situation and I look forward to reviewing their findings and recommendations.
There are a number of issues we should begin discussing-and of course other issues will emerge in the coming weeks. I think the following are good starting points.

Do we need the USDA, Congress and the states to look carefully at the live bird markets and independent growers? This is one of the most important questions and probably one of the most controversial. With every news report, we are learning more and more about the independent grower in Kent County where the disease was first reported and the live market in New York where the virus may have originated. Currently, we are learning that there are no nationwide standard regulations for these markets and no safety guarantees. Live markets are facilities where independent buyers resell or purchase live or slaughtered chickens. Reports have surfaced that some states have regulations, including weekly or monthly inspections to licensure procedures, but there is no consistency across the states. We must also be willing to look at the long distance transportation of live animals from these markets and consider whether or not there should be carcass only trade to prevent the spread of disease. Not every Avian Influenza case can be pinpointed to one place but investigations and studies in other outbreaks have led to live bird markets. Should we be looking towards stronger oversight or regulation? I am not sure of the answer to that, but we should be discussing it on the federal level.

Do we need a review of safety measures or so-called bio security measures? This is a subject area that deserves greater scrutiny. Since the outbreak Delaware and Maryland have taken strong precautionary measures to prevent the spread of this disease including decontamination of feed trucks and delivery trucks. Do these farms have access to the best decontamination technologies? Our poultry industry makes significant investments in this technology every year and it is important they have access to the best equipment and practices possible.

The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service offered voluntary guidelines last summer to keep the poultry industry and consumers safe from contamination at every step of the process, from farm preparation to the dinner table and perhaps we should look at these recommendations again. Some include identifying critical points in the shipping process, keeping strict records, better employee training regarding contamination and other food security measures. Many of these could also be considered for the transport and care of live bird flocks to the farm.

Do we need to better educate those who are dealing with disease control and eradication efforts on the ground ? Obviously these people are most at risk because they are dealing directly with infected poultry activities ranging from euthanasia, carcass disposal and cleaning and disinfection of premises affected by the disease. These workers must have the most stringent health guidelines to follow, the best protection equipment and be able to monitor their own symptoms as well. Many agencies are involved in the reaction to such outbreaks ranging from USDA to the CDC. We need to make sure that these agencies are communicating and sharing information.

Finally, how can we restore trade in a safe and timely fashion? This outbreak is bigger than Delaware and bigger than Delmarva-the entire poultry industry has been affected by the trade bans. About 17 percent of the chicken meat produced in the U.S. is exported-a value of $1.5 billion each year. Hong Kong, Ukraine, China, Russia, Poland, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and other countries have all instituted bans on our poultry and of course it is our hope that these trade bans will be short lived. My office has been in touch with USDA Foreign Agriculture Service (FAS) who said that the United States has a number of agreements in place with our various trade partners and the protocols vary from country to country . Unfortunately there is not a list of nice neat boxes that can be checked off before trade can resume . FAS and the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service are working in tandem to update our trading partners and make the case that Delaware poultry is safe.

Once the pathogenicity of the virus is confirmed and additional testing that Delaware and the surrounding region has put in place is completed, USDA will take this information to our trade partners and make the case through our foreign agents overseas.

Countries will not be satisfied until they have the full picture of the strain, the testing that has been done and all the measures that Delaware has implemented to halt the spread . Barring any further discoveries and once all the testing is complete we will be moving towards normalized trade. I stand ready and willing to do what I can to ensure trade is back on line in a safe and efficient fashion.

The bottom line-we must all be willing to discuss all of the options for the future. It seems that Delaware has weathered the storm and it is time to study our response and prevention process and look at how to best prevent such a situation in the future.