Treyfish
Moderator
Local Poultry Auction Quarantined
POSTED: 7:18 pm EDT March 20, 2008
UPDATED: 7:45 pm EDT March 20, 2008
<script src="/js/13260191/script.js" type="text/javascript"></script><!--startindex-->MARTINSBURG, Pa. -- The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture has quarantined a poultry auction in Blair County after a backtracking investigation revealed it may have been exposed to a string of the avian influenza.
Department of Agriculture officials said ducks that were up for sale at an auction in Luzerne County may have been the same ducks sold at the Farmer's Poultry and Hay Auction in Martinsburg. The ducks were carrying the low pathogen strain of the avian flu, which officials said causes no public health threat, neither direct infection nor food safety.
According to officials, the ducks did not show signs of a virus. They appeared to be normal and healthy. The birds may have picked it up from wild birds, which isn't uncommon. And in this particular case they have seen no sick birds, other animals or humans.
Officials at the Department of Agriculture are still taking every precaution. In the past week, under quarantine, the auction house in Martinsburg and two other auction houses in Pennsylvania have cleaned and disinfected their facilities. They are waiting for lab results and officials said if those results are negative, the quarantines will be revoked.
According to officials, other birds that passed through the Martinsburg auction house went to Maryland and the Maryland Department of Agriculture is also investigating.
Officials said this case is a useful reminder to anyone who owns poultry that it is important to practice biosecurity to prevent the avian flu or any other bird disease. :tiphat: http://www.wjactv.com/news/15658015/detail.html<!--stopindex-->
POSTED: 7:18 pm EDT March 20, 2008
UPDATED: 7:45 pm EDT March 20, 2008
<script src="/js/13260191/script.js" type="text/javascript"></script><!--startindex-->MARTINSBURG, Pa. -- The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture has quarantined a poultry auction in Blair County after a backtracking investigation revealed it may have been exposed to a string of the avian influenza.
Department of Agriculture officials said ducks that were up for sale at an auction in Luzerne County may have been the same ducks sold at the Farmer's Poultry and Hay Auction in Martinsburg. The ducks were carrying the low pathogen strain of the avian flu, which officials said causes no public health threat, neither direct infection nor food safety.
According to officials, the ducks did not show signs of a virus. They appeared to be normal and healthy. The birds may have picked it up from wild birds, which isn't uncommon. And in this particular case they have seen no sick birds, other animals or humans.
Officials at the Department of Agriculture are still taking every precaution. In the past week, under quarantine, the auction house in Martinsburg and two other auction houses in Pennsylvania have cleaned and disinfected their facilities. They are waiting for lab results and officials said if those results are negative, the quarantines will be revoked.
According to officials, other birds that passed through the Martinsburg auction house went to Maryland and the Maryland Department of Agriculture is also investigating.
Officials said this case is a useful reminder to anyone who owns poultry that it is important to practice biosecurity to prevent the avian flu or any other bird disease. :tiphat: http://www.wjactv.com/news/15658015/detail.html<!--stopindex-->