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Oregon Department of Agriculture

News
Oregon observes Bird Health Awareness Week
10/27/2010
Suggested lead

Backyard bird owners is the audience, disease prevention is the message as the nation observes Bird Health Awareness Week:

(NOTE:  Bird Health Awareness Week is November 1-7)

 
 
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Audio 01
Backyard bird owners are counted on to play a key role in preventing and detecting poultry diseases in Oregon. That's because their flocks are relatively more susceptible than commercial birds and could spread disease into commercial flocks. Bruce Mueller, field veterinarian with the Oregon Department of Agriculture, says the primary message during this special week is to take steps to prevent disease:

MUELLER:  "If you don't prevent it before it gets started, a lot of times you end up with a bunch of chickens that are either totally non-productive or dead. It's a bad deal. So you want to prevent disease before it can get started."  :12

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Audio 02
Basic sanitation and minimizing exposure to other birds are two effective prevention steps. Mueller says the commercial poultry industry does a very good job of dealing with bird health issues. The need for outreach and education among other bird owners stems from two headline diseases of concern that have not reached Oregon yet:

MUELLER:  "Avian influenza, both the high path and low path forms, thankfully we haven't seen that or the Exotic Newcastle that they had down in California. Part of that is the way industry works and part of it is also that we are not as densely populated with poultry up here."  :18

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The state's poultry industry was responsible for more than 130-million dollars in sales last year. It's an industry worth protecting not only during the special week, but all year long. In Salem, I'm Bruce Pokarney.  


Additional audio: Audio 03
MUELLER says, as with pets, there are some steps backyard bird owners can take to prevent disease:

"Vaccination- there are certain vaccines you can get from hatcheries. Then mostly, it's just keeping other birds away from your birds."  :09

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Additional audio: Audio 04
MUELLER says backyard bird owners are generally not quite as aware of health issues as commercial growers, who often unwittingly expose their birds to diseases:

"They go to auctions and buy birds and bring them back, put them with their birds, and that sort of thing. That's why we work on it. That's why we've got the poultry calendar that we put out every year with messages about biosecurity and what not and why we work with the 4-H and other people to get those kinds of messages out."  :17

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Full story
http://oregon.gov/ODA/news/101027birds.shtml