NEWS

Ohio bans all poultry shows

Todd Hill
Reporter

BUCYRUS – For farm kids who have spent the past several months getting their poultry ready for fair season, the announcement from the state on Tuesday that all live bird exhibitions this year have been canceled to combat the spread of avian flu is a major disappointment.

"We're still deciding what to do because the kids work hard on their birds all year and want to show them off," said Rebecca Starner, chairwoman of the Crawford County Fair Board. "Maybe they can make a poster, but I don't know how they can be judged because they need to be seen for that."

Since it was first detected in a backyard poultry flock in Oregon last December, the latest strain of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza has been found at 200 more locations, largely in the upper Midwest, resulting in the loss of 44 million birds, mostly chickens and turkeys.

The extremely contagious HPAI has not been discovered in Ohio yet, but it was identified in Indiana last month. Poultry operations in Iowa and Minnesota have been hardest hit.

"This was a difficult decision because it means young people can't show their birds at fairs, but it's in the best interest of an industry that literally thousands of Ohio families and businesses depend on and which provides billions of dollars to our state's economy," said David T. Daniels, director of the Ohio Department of Agriculture.

"The right move isn't always the easy move, but this is the right move, especially when you see just how devastating the virus has been to other big poultry states."

Ohio is the second-largest egg-producing state in the U.S., a distant second behind Iowa, with producers here raising 28 million laying chickens, 12 million broilers, 8.5 million pullets and 2 million turkeys. According to the Ohio Ag Department, these operations contribute $2.3 billion to the state's economy.

And the birds also play a large role in Ohio's county fair culture every summer.

"It's a pretty big day, it's Monday all day," Starner said of the annual poultry exhibitions at the Crawford County Fair. "This leaves a pretty big hole on Monday."

With Tuesday's announcement, Ohio has joined Indiana, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Michigan in canceling all poultry shows this year.

"One of the ways avian influenza spreads is by direct contact with contaminated materials coming from other infected birds. This means that exhibitions, auctions and swap meets where birds are co-mingling pose a high risk of unintentionally spreading this disease," state veterinarian Dr. Tony Forshey said.

"Until we can be sure that there has been no transference from the wild bird population migrating through the state, we need to do all we can to minimize the exposure for our domestic birds."

This new strain of HPAI is believed to have originated from migratory fowl in the Pacific flyway, such as Canada geese. While the USDA has been expecting new incidences of HPAI to level off with the warmer weather, cases could spike again once the fall migrations kick in.

While all fairs are off-limits this year for handlers of poultry, Allison Cooper, 4-H youth development extension educator for Crawford County, said The Ohio State University Extension is letting county offices decide how they want to handle 4-H projects involving the birds.

"Kids can still compete in the Skillathon in July, and complete their 4-H project with that," Cooper said, referring to the program in which participants learn about the life cycles of their birds.

"I encourage them to keep raising their birds and see what the future brings. We're making a plan, and I encourage everyone to be patient," she said.

Over the past two summers, county fair boards were forced to take precautions against the spread of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, which caused the death of scores of piglets in Ohio. No exhibitions were canceled, but show swine, unlike poultry, are terminal, meaning they can't go to multiple shows.

"The experience of raising a live animal to show at the fair builds character and teaches responsibility," Daniels said. "We don't want to deprive anyone of the opportunity to complete their projects."

"For that reason, we are working with OSU Extension to send out guidance to the fair boards and 4-H committees urging them to be creative and find a solution that will allow their young people to still have a fair experience, even if they cannot bring their project to the fairgrounds."

The USDA said chances that HPAI can be transferred to humans are very low, and emphasized that the nation's poultry supply is safe for consumption, although it has become more expensive, with the cost of eggs rising by about 80 percent nationwide from the first of the year.

In north central Ohio, Richland County ranks 15th among Ohio's 88 counties in poultry and egg production, while Crawford County ranks 25th and Marion County 34th.

thill3@nncogannett.com

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Twitter: @ToddHillMNJ