February 25, 2004

 

 

Texas Officials Confident Bird Flu Contained

 

Agricultural officials from Texas are confident that the bird flu outbreak has been contained in the state. But farms will have to quarantined for at least a month before the region can be declared disease free.

 

They said they had located all poultry within a 10-mile radius of a chicken flock in Gonzales County that was found to be infected with a "high pathogenic" form of bird flu and had tested about 70 percent of them.

 

Although not all test results were in, no other sick birds had been found, Mark Michalke, field veterinarian for the Texas Animal Health Commission, said in a press conference at the county courthouse in Gonzales, about 50 miles west of San Antonio.

 

"We're still contained to one known infected flock," he said. "We're very optimistic."

 

The strain of "high pathogenic" bird flu found in Texas could quickly wipe out poultry flocks, but was not considered a threat to humans. It was a different virus from the bird flu that recently killed 22 people in Asia, officials said.

 

The sick flock, 6,600 birds which belonged to a small producer using two rented chicken houses to raise the birds, was killed over the weekend by authorities.

 

U.S. Department of Agriculture veterinarian Jack Shere told reporters that the approximately 200 flocks in the 10-mile radius would go through four rounds of testing to assure that the avian influenza had not spread.

 

Shere estimated the process would take "30 to 35 days if we don't find any more infections." Only at the end of that time would Gonzales County be considered officially free of the bird flu, he said.

 

The retesting would help assure U.S. trading partners that they could safely buy Texas chickens, Michalke said.

 

"It's probably a little bit of overkill, but that's good. With our trade partners we want to be over and above (all standards)," he said.

 

Since news of the outbreak last week, a number of countries, including Russia and Mexico, have banned Texas or U.S. chickens.

 

Officials have not put a quarantine on chickens from Gonzales County, saying they do not think it is necessary.