Chicken is what is for dinner tonight! When you prepare chicken, there are many food safety rules that must be followed to ensure that no one catches salmonella or another foodborne disease. In addition to disinfecting your preparation surfaces, reducing cross contamination by washing your hands, using separate utensils for raw and cooked products, and cooking to proper safe temperatures, do you also wonder how the Avian Influenza outbreak affects the poultry that you just brought home from the store?
As people who work with poultry can attest, the health and well being of their birds is of utmost importance. The environmental conditions, biosecurity, the quality of the feed and water, and the bird’s health are monitored closely. In the 1930’s the National Poultry Improvement Program was established to improve poultry through diagnostic technology. The diseases that they surveil include Avian Influenza, Salmonella, and Mycoplasma. The NPIP focuses on assisting producers to improve the health and biosecurity of breeding, hatching, and young birds to ensure disease free flocks. This program is also very important in trade with foreign countries, as no one wants to accidently import disease into their own country. You can read more about NPIP here: http://www.poultryimprovement.org/default.cfm (1).
Avian Influenza is generally a disease of poultry that is caused by an influenza A virus, and there are two forms. Low Pathogenicity Avian Influenza occurs in wild birds naturally. This strain has little impact on domestic poultry, who only show mild symptoms and it is not a threat to humans. High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza can cause fatalities in domestic poultry and spreads quickly among flocks. Symptoms that poultry may exhibit are diarrhea, malaise, a drop in egg production, discoloration of combs, legs, wattles, swelling about the head or legs, sneezing, cough, nasal discharge, or sudden death.
Biosecurity is key to prevent this from occurring. The are many important steps to include when preparing your biosecurity plans. This also applies to backyard as well as commercial flocks. No one is immune to risk because they have a small operation or belong to a large corporation. Everyone must have heightened awareness that they could accidently convey the virus without knowing. Vigilance is key to preventing the spread of this virus from one flock to another, especially where poultry houses are very dense in farming communities, and people have small flocks in their backyard for personal enjoyment, egg, or meat production.
Here are steps recommended by APHIS to help prevent the spread of the virus:
- All in or All out policies for flock management – no mixing of flocks
- Eliminating any exposure to wild birds – ensuring that there are no holes in netting, allowing birds outside where they can have direct contact to soil or vegetation that could be contaminated, removal of wild bird nests from eaves and rafters.
- Using clean clothing and disinfectants. If you have employees, make sure that they understand the importance of having dedicated clothing and shoes, and proper disinfectant processes.
- Closing the area to nonessential traffic and personnel. The more traffic in the area, the better the chance that you will track in a disease that could harm your flock.
- Spraying tires and the undercarriage before entering and leaving flock management areas. This prevents the spread of disease to yourself and others, such as your neighbors who have poultry houses or those that frequent the same vendors and suppliers that you do.
- Do not lend equipment or vehicles. It is hard to deny your neighbor or relative use of equipment and vehicles, but to keep your flock healthy, it is a must.
- Do not visit others who have birds or places where birds are kept, such as other poultry operations, fairs, zoos, and the local swap meet. If you must, make sure to follow disinfection processes rigorously.
- Follow the rule of no reintroduction of birds. Once they leave the farm, they do not come back – especially if they have been to a slaughter facility. These tips and more can be found here: https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/animalhealth/nvap/NVAP-Reference-Guide/Poultry/Avian-Influenza (2).
Certain strains of High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza may on occasion cause illness in humans who have direct contact with diseased poultry. In humans, the symptoms can mimic the flu or Covid-19. Currently, the United States and Europe are finding Avian Influenza in wild birds, backyard flocks and some commercial flocks. As of this writing, HPAI has been detected in the states of Wisconsin, Illinois, Kansas, South Dakota, Maryland, Missouri, Connecticut, Iowa, Michigan, Delaware, Maine, New York, Kentucky, Virginia, Indiana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, and South Carolina in the United States. The current list may be found here: https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/newsroom/news/all-program-updates-bycat?filters=News/HPAI (2). The CDC has a great graphic of how human infections can occur (3).
Once the poultry gets to the processing plants, more interventions are used to reduce or eliminate harmful bacteria that could cause food borne illnesses. Sanitizers, temperature control, and other technologies are applied during processing and packaging to reduce or eliminate pathogens and spoilage bacteria.
So now that we have that chicken ready to prepare, should we worry that we can catch Avian Influenza from the chicken? Should we treat it as hazardous waste? Is it glowing green? The short answer is no, you won’t be able to catch AI from the chicken you just purchased. The CDC states “No human bird flu infections have been reported from proper handling of poultry meat or from eating properly cooked poultry or poultry products” (3). However, if it is glowing green and smells bad, you should probably dispose of it anyway.
If you have food safety questions, concerns, or suggestions for future blogs, don’t hesitate to reach out. If you know of someone who would enjoy the blog, share it! As always, wash your hands, stay safe and stay away from the ducks in the park!
- NPIP. (n.d.). Retrieved March 15, 2022, from http://www.poultryimprovement.org/default.cfm
- USDA APHIS. (n.d.). Retrieved March 15, 2022, from https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/animalhealth/nvap/NVAP-Reference-Guide/Poultry/Avian-Influenza
- avian-flu-transmission.pdf. (n.d.). https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pdf/avianflu/avian-flu-transmission.pdf