By Alex Murphy and Rae Solomon
U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper met with local poultry and dairy producers in Fort Collins on Monday to discuss ongoing issues with the avian flu outbreak. The virus has hit Colorado hard and shrunk egg production by more than 60% this past summer.
Also known as HPAI, the Colorado Department of Agriculture started tracking avian flu cases in March 2022. In April of this year, health officials found the virus in cattle and farm workers who work with animals like cows and chickens. So far there have been no cases of human-to-human transmission.
Avian flu cases have led to farms losing entire flocks of hens in places like Weld County. One egg-producing facility in the area, Opal Foods, paid over $10 million to sanitize their facility after losing their birds.
“We have about just under 2 million birds on our Roggen facility, and going through that process of identification and depopulation is a terrible experience that I don't want to wish on anyone,” said Ted Greidanus, Vice President of Opal Foods. “It's traumatic to euthanize that many birds.”
Besides the costs, it takes months for a facility to rebuild its flock of birds.
"All of our farms in the state of Colorado have had to go through this process and lost their hens," said Colorado Egg Producers executive director Bill Scebbi. "We lost 6.3 million hens in a 12-month period."
While symptoms of bird flu can be like a mild flu, the CDC says the disease can be deadly in both animals and humans. There have not been any cases of human-related deaths in Colorado, but there are ten documented cases in the state this year. The CDC says nine of those cases are related to farmworkers and poultry, while one case is linked to cattle.
Officials like veterinarians and agriculture producers are calling for a bigger coordinated national effort to better test and contain the disease. To do so, the problem needs more funding for enhanced testing. Sen. Hickenlooper plans to request more money from the federal level.
“They need to add roughly 50% to the laboratory budget to make sure that there's sufficient capacity to address any evolution, any change in the challenges that they're already facing,” said Sen. Hickenlooper. “As we get the Ag bill done, we'll make sure that it has that extra money for laboratory capacity.”
More funding may come through by the end of the year if federal lawmakers manage to pass the Farm Bill, which is already more than a year overdue.
The virus originated among wild birds before spreading to domestic poultry. But one thing that still eludes scientists and industry alike is exactly how the virus is spreading between flocks. Greidanus with Opal Foods described a robust biosecurity system that keeps their henhouses isolated from outside contamination.
"Our buildings... are all sealed and biocontained. It's shower in, shower out," said Greidanus. "We have lasers, we have air cannons. We've got netting over our ponds. We have dust control mitigation all the way around it. We have gone through all of the biosecurity processes that are known today, and we've looked at everything that we can do to help keep this virus out."
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