Chicken Farmers Anxious After Bird Flu Outbreak At Sag Harbor Game Farm

Thousands of pheasants and ducks at a Sag Harbor game farm had to be euthanized by the U.S. Department of Agriculture last week after some of the birds were discovered to have died from the highly contagious bird flu — which has forced farmers to destroy millions of commercially raised chickens and turkeys nationwide in recent months.

According to New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, the local outbreak of H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza, or HPAI — commonly called “bird flu”— was identified on March 23 and confirmed by the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service labs in Ames, Iowa, after the farm’s owner, David Schellinger, reported to a veterinarian an unusual number of deaths among the captive flock. The veterinarian then contacted state officials.

Over several days last week, the USDA euthanized about 6,000 ring-necked pheasants and mallard ducks that had been raised at the farm to be used as targets for hunters. The birds were euthanized using carbon dioxide gas, a spokesperson from the State Agriculture Department said.

Spring Farm owner David Schellinger said that it is believed the virus was introduced to his flock by wild birds, probably ducks, that frequent one of the ponds on the property.

He said the disaster probably spells the end for the game farm, which his father started in 1940. Schellinger, 80, said he is going to retire and does not currently have plans for handing over the operation of the 125-acre farm to someone else.

“The ducks get it, but don’t die from it, and they can spread it to the pheasants, and the pheasants die like flies from it,” Schellinger said. “It’s an unfortunate thing. And so that’s probably it for me, I’m going to retire. It was almost time anyway.”

Bird flu has been identified in snow geese and wild ducks in New York State, according to Department of Agriculture and Markets Associate Director of Public Information Hanna Birkhead, and wild waterfowl have been known to spread the virus to other birds.

Two other cases of bird flu infections have been detected in Suffolk County in recent months, according to the department’s website. One was among a small flock of backyard pets that the state described as “non-poultry” and was discovered on February 18. The other was among a group of upland game birds confirmed to have infected individuals on March 25, just two days after the birds at the Sag Harbor game farm were confirmed to be infected.

Local officials said they have been told the USDA had been tracking birds believed to have been sold by Spring Farm to another game farm in the region. Birkhead said that any farms that received birds from the farm where the initial outbreak was detected were being investigated and the birds tested for the avian influenza.

The number of birds in the second group, which is listed as only upland game birds, has not been detailed by the state, but all the birds from both sites were euthanized.

The birds euthanized at Spring Farm were to be “composted,” state officials said, although it was not clear if that meant they were to remain on the property.

State and federal officials have been quick to assure residents that the bird flu poses very little risk to humans, who do not have very close interactions with birds either at their jobs or at their homes.

“No human cases of these avian influenza viruses have been detected in the United States,” Birkhead said in a message on Wednesday.

The State Agriculture Department has been conducting outreach in the region to alert poultry owners to be on the lookout for signs of infection in their flocks, she said. The agency has also issued general advisory to any hobby poultry owners with advice on how to protect their flocks: keeping chickens away from wild ducks and geese or their droppings, and limiting outdoor access for chickens while the bird flu outbreak is ongoing.

The USDA maintains a “Defend the Flock” page on its website with advice for both hobbyists and commercial poultry farmers. The federal agency advises that bird owners minimize “unnecessary visitors” and bar access by anyone who owns any kind of fowl or has had contact with any type of birds in the last five days. Any sick or dead birds should be reported to federal officials immediately.

There have been a total of six confirmed outbreaks of bird flu statewide since the first February 18 case. Nationwide, the recent outbreak of avian flu has been detected in 14 states and has led to the euthanizing of millions of chickens and turkeys.

On March 14, a single egg-laying facility in Wisconsin was forced to euthanize some 2.7 million chickens because of an outbreak.

During the last outbreak of bird flu in the United States, more than 50 million chickens and turkeys either died of infections or were euthanized to prevent further spread. The price of chicken meat rose more than 15 percent because of the outbreak.

The State Department of Agriculture and Markets recently banned all live fowl shows and exhibitions in New York State to help prevent the spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza to the state’s poultry population.

Rich King, who owns Kings Farm in North Sea, said that he has not been particularly concerned about the virus spreading to the chickens he raises, both as egg layers and as future chicken dinners.

“There’s no easy way to protect against it really, it’s the wild birds,” he said, noting that his flock is small now but growing by a few hundred birds every week to what will ultimately be about 2,000 birds before the busy summer. “We’re setting up washing stations and I keep a net over my [chickens], and they are quite young yet, so hopefully this goes away soon.”

Art Ludlow, who raises turkeys in the run-up to Thanksgiving, said he is worried that even if the flu wanes as the weather warms — same as with human influenzas — it will rebound in the fall just as his birds are maturing. He said that pattern held true in 2015, although his flock has never seen an outbreak.

“We are right near waterfowl areas and they are asymptomatic carriers and the fact that they are migratory means they are traveling and it doesn’t take much to spread it,” Ludlow said. “It’s a concerning thing, definitely.”