Minnesota poultry farmers work to avoid another avian flu outbreak

CATHY WURZER: On Monday, state health officials confirmed Minnesota's first case of avian influenza this year in a flock of chickens, ducks, and geese in Le Sueur County. Last year, the disease led to the deaths of more than four million birds in Minnesota and 58 million nationwide. Poultry farmers say they're working hard to avoid an outbreak but are also adjusting to a new normal of living with the virus's presence. Kirsti Marohn has this report.

KIRSTI MAROHN: Avian flu hit Pete Klaphake's Central Minnesota turkey growing operation hard last year. In just one week, one of his farms tested positive going to do, another on Tuesday. Within two days, they'd lost more than 100,000 birds.

PETE KLAPHAKE: After you have a positive, you kind of go through, OK, where would we have had a breach? Or did we do something? Or did something happen?

KIRSTI MAROHN: Klaphake doesn't have any clear answers. Maybe there was a breach in biosecurity, or the virus simply blew into his barns on a windy day.

PETE KLAPHAKE: By nature, I'm an eternal optimist. I'm hoping for our industry. I'm hoping for our operation. I'm hoping for the growers that work with us, raising birds, that we don't have to deal with anything like we did last year.

KIRSTI MAROHN: This week, the Minnesota Board of Animal Health announced the first new case of bird flu in four months, news that poultry producers have been dreading.

ASHLEY KOHLS: We have definitely enjoyed kind of the lull in activity since December, but it doesn't mean that anybody's actually relaxed.

KIRSTI MAROHN: Ashley Kohls is executive director of the Minnesota turkey Growers Association.

ASHLEY KOHLS: Folks are definitely and remain kind of on the edge of their seats. While we all really want spring to get here and get rid of some of this snow pack across Minnesota, folks are nervous with every warm day for the migratory birds to work their way north.

KIRSTI MAROHN: Those migratory birds can carry the virus to commercial poultry flocks, where it spreads quickly and is almost always lethal. The entire flock must be euthanized to prevent more infections. Dr. Jill Nezworski is an independent poultry veterinarian. She says the poultry industry is moving into a new normal, which includes living with high-path avian flu.

JILL NEZWORSKI: There's not a lot of optimism, and everybody has this sense of impending dread, of waiting for the outbreak.

KIRSTI MAROHN: Nezworski says the industry learned from last year's outbreak. Farmers stuck to biosecurity plans to prevent the disease from spreading from farm to farm such, as limiting visitors and sanitizing trucks and equipment. But Nezworski says the majority of outbreaks last year appear to have been independent introductions. So now, more than ever, farmers are looking at how to prevent the virus from entering the barn from outside.

JILL NEZWORSKI: We are all taught how to prevent farm-to-farm spread. That's much more traditional biosecurity practices, and this new normal, we have to get really creative.

KIRSTI MAROHN: She says some poultry farmers are applying calcium chloride to gravel roads to reduce dust that might blow into barns. Others are taking extreme measures to keep away wild birds that could carry disease. That includes installing systems that scare them away by shining laser beams. Nezworski says others are trying air horns, fake coyotes, or even those giant inflatable men with flailing arms, commonly seen at car dealerships.

JILL NEZWORSKI: I have one grower who's got a stack of bottle rockets that he's shooting bottle rockets off to scare the geese away.

KIRSTI MAROHN: Other growers say they're not rushing to adopt any new prevention methods but are sticking to practices that have worked in the past. Erika Sawatzke is a sixth-generation turkey farmer in Kensington, west of Alexandria.

ERIKA SAWATZKE: We've always tried to be diligent about keeping wild birds away, even like rodents, out of our barn because they'll track in diseases. So for us, that's something that we've never changed on our farm.

KIRSTI MAROHN: Despite the stress and financial strain that avian flu brings, none of the poultry growers I talked to are thinking of calling it quits. Klaphake says they're not letting down their guard and are doing what they can to prevent an outbreak. But he tries not to spend too much time dwelling on what ifs.

PETE KLAPHAKE: If you're constantly worrying about a disaster happening in any walk of life, you're not going to do that occupation very long.

KIRSTI MAROHN: For Poultry farmers, learning to live with the threat of a contagious virus is now part of the job. Kirsti Marrone, NPR News, Brainerd.

CATHY WURZER: And Kirsti joins us now from our Central Minnesota Bureau in Collegeville along with reporter Dan Gunderson in Moorhead to talk about what we can expect with avian flu this year. Thanks to both of you for being here.

KIRSTI MAROHN: Hi, Cathy.

DAN GUNDERSON: Hi, Cathy.

CATHY WURZER: Hey, Dan. I'm going to start with you. I know you've been talking to experts who've been tracking the virus. What have they learned?

DAN GUNDERSON: Well, the virus has certainly been active. It hasn't gone away at all. A lot of the waterfowl that carry the virus left the Midwest last fall. They migrate, and they spend the winter months, many of them, in Central and South America.

And many of those countries in Central and South America had their first outbreaks of avian influenza this winter or what's summer for them. And so the big question that scientists are looking at now is, what will those waterfowl bring back with them when they come back north? They're wondering if these wild birds that were infected last year will have developed some immunity to the virus, perhaps, or maybe the virus has changed over the past several months. And those questions likely won't be answered for a few weeks until we really get this wild waterfowl migration in full swing.

CATHY WURZER: Kirsti touched on this in her piece. Could all this snow and the cold we've had this spring delay outbreaks?

DAN GUNDERSON: Well, certainly, if you're a goose, would you want to come back to Minnesota right now? I guess they're looking for open water, and most of the water is frozen right now.

I know some geese have been spotted in Minnesota, but a lot of them tend to hold up at the snow line because they're looking for open water. And so that could delay things. And also if waterfowl tend to hold up in an area where there's a lot of poultry farms and you get a large gathering of waterfowl, that also increases the risk for spreading the virus to those poultry farms.

CATHY WURZER: What early signs will scientists and health officials be watching for that could indicate how bad this flu season could be?

DAN GUNDERSON: Well, one of the things-- one of the experts I talked to said he's watching for infections in backyard poultry flocks because, as we heard in Kirsti's piece, farmers have done a really good job with these biosecurity measures they've put in place. But backyard poultry farms don't have as much of an opportunity for using biosecurity, so they're at a higher risk. So they'll be watching for that.

And then if there's a lot of virus around, it's going to show up in wild bird mortality. That'll tell you if there's a lot of virus and how strong it is. So if there are large die offs in waterfowl or, perhaps, there's a lot of raptor deaths, that's going to indicate the virus is widespread and still very deadly to birds.

CATHY WURZER: Kirsti, you talked to several poultry producers for the story, and just listening to their voices, it's clear that this has been really tough for them. How are they holding up?

KIRSTI MAROHN: It's been really stressful. The waiting game is really hard, I think, but they are-- they're learning to live with this sort of constant elevated threat. They did get a little bit of a reprieve over the past few months, but no one really expected that would last.

So these biosecurity practices that we talked about, those are becoming habits. These are things like making sure that workers are changing shoes and their outer clothing before they enter the barns, washing their hands, sanitizing equipment and tools, and then, of course, limiting visitors and traffic on the farms.

So they're relying on what they know but then also trying not to stress too much about things that are outside of their control.

CATHY WURZER: I know there's some talk at the national level about a mass vaccination effort for avian flu. Is that possible? What's happening with that?

KIRSTI MAROHN: Well, federal scientists have been working on a vaccine that would protect commercial flocks from this high-path avian flu. But most people that I talked to said we're probably a long way out from a mass vaccination effort, and that's partly because there are concerns in the industry that it could result in trade restrictions in some countries. Those are countries that have banned vaccinated poultry because of concerns that infected birds could slip through undetected.

So those kind of trade restrictions could really affect poultry exports, and that would really hurt the industry. So those questions still need to be worked out along with how and when a vaccine would be distributed. So it's pretty unlikely that we would see a vaccine ready to be rolled out in time to prevent an outbreak this year.

CATHY WURZER: The first case, as you've all reported, has been in Le Sueur County. It was a backyard flock of chickens, ducks, and geese. So we have a lot of people who do have backyard flocks. What should they be doing to protect their birds?

KIRSTI MAROHN: Well, I think the key message from state and federal health officials is, even if you just have a few chickens in a coop in your backyard, they are still at risk, and there are some things that you should do to keep them safe and healthy.

So that includes, if you have an outdoor pen, make sure it's covered or enclosed, cleaning up any spilled feed to make sure it's not attracting wild birds, and then keeping your flock away from big puddles, or ponds, or other standing water, where wild birds might like to hang out, and then, of course, washing your hands, making sure your clothing and your shoes are clean when you're coming in and out of the coop, and just doing those routine safety measures.

CATHY WURZER: By the way, should we be worried about avian flu spreading to humans?

DAN GUNDERSON: Well, Cathy the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization both say that the risk to humans is really low at this point. Worldwide, there have been 11 cases since January of 2022, but it's important to point out those were all people who handled infected poultry. And so far, there's no indication the virus is spreading between animals, although there have been a number of cases of mammals dying-- foxes, bear, things like that. And most of those cases they believe those animals got the flu from eating a bird who was sick or died from avian influenza.

But scientists are paying really close attention to cases that show up in mammals because, if the virus starts spreading among those mammals, that's one step closer to human infection.

CATHY WURZER: All right. Thanks to you both for reporting on the issue. Good work. Thank you.

KIRSTI MAROHN: You're welcome, Cathy.

DAN GUNDERSON: You're welcome, Cathy.

CATHY WURZER: We've been talking to NPR reporters Kirsti Marrone in Collegeville. Dan Gunderson is in Morehead. You can hear Dan's story on national and international efforts to track avian flu this afternoon on All Things Considered.