Abstract
Avian Influenza Outbreak:
Statistical Update
WASHINGTON, Jan. 30 - This is an update on the cooperative state-federalindustry effort to contain and eradicate a serious outbreak of avian influenza among poultry in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia and Maryland.
QUARANTINE Quarantines in effect are as follows: • In Pennsylvania 5, 100 square miles including all of Adams, Lancaster and York counties, and portions of Berks, Chester, Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin and Lebanon counties. In Maryland 300 square miles in part of Cecil county. In New jersey 12 square miles on a buffer zone in parts of Salem, Cumberland and Gloucester counties surrounding the single originally infected premises. In Virginia 3,200 square miles covering all of Page, Rockingham and Shenandoah counties, and parts of Augusta, Frederick and Warren counties.
Federal quarantines in Maryland and Virginia were announcedJan. 27 to augment state quarantines. Quarantine boundaries are as follows:
• In Virginia east from the West Virginia-Virginia state line along Virginia highway 55, then south along the Skyline Drive to Waynesboro, then west along Interstate 64 and Virginia highway 250 to the Augusta-Highland county line, and then north along that county line and the Virginia-West Virginia state line to the starting point at highway 55.
• In Maryland east from the Susquehanna River along the PennsylvaniaMaryland state line, then south along the Maryland-Delaware state line to the C & D Canal, then west along the Canal to the Chesapeake Bay, and then along the shoreline to the mouth of the Susquehanna River and then northwest along the Susquehanna River to the starting point at the Maryland-Pennsylvania state line.
SCOPE OF OUTBREAK
• An additional $ 34 million has been authorized to eradicate avian influenza stemming from the Pennsylvania outbreak.
• Task force headquarters are being set up in Harrisonburg, Va., to eliminate avian influenza in Virginia. One flock of 7,200 turkeys has-been destroyed with federal indemnity.
•An infected flock of 59,596 chickens has been destroyed near Rising Sun, Md. Efforts to eliminate this infection are being coordinated out of task force headquarters at Lancaster, Pa.
• In Pennsylvania and New Jersey, 760 premises investigated thus far. Of this number, 260 have been diagnosed as infected with avian influenza.
• In a new effort to detect the disease in its earliest stages, task force members are picking up dead birds to collect specimens for laboratory analysis; 506 premises have been surveyed within the quarantine area and 203 others have been surveyed to date.
• To date, flocks containing 10,058,064 birds have been appraised on 258 of the infected premises. Indemnities for birds, eggs, feed and other material that must be destroyed on these premises totals $19,831,165.
• Avian influenza does not affect humans.
ERADICATION PROGRESS
• A total of 10,045,957 birds on 257 premises have been destroyed, including: 6,203,305 layers, 3,502,681 broilers, 220,155 breeders, 83,598 turkeys, 30,021 guinea fowl, and 6,197 others.
• Cleaning and disinfection has been completed on 67 previously infected premises; 6 depopulated premises have been released from quarantine.
• Infected poultry are killed humanely with carbon dioxide and are buried in sanitary landfills. This is environmentally safe.