Chris Foster is raising rare breed ornamental layers at his home on Bloomington’s west side. Staff photo by Jeremy Hogan
The Hoosier state’s only poultry veterinarian is trying to answer a difficult question: What do you do with 32 million dead birds?
It’s a question that’s never been asked in the United States, and a problem Midwestern farmers have recently found themselves facing in growing numbers. Since December, cases of avian influenza have spread through 15 states, including Indiana, though Hoosier farmers have yet to see the same impact as such fellow poultry-producing states as Iowa and Minnesota.
As of May 9, only one flock in Indiana had tested positive for avian flu, resulting in the killing of 77 birds. In comparison, some poultry and egg facilities in other states have had to destroy hundreds of thousands of birds after the first sign of infection.
“For this individual who lost his flock, it was a devastating experience,” said Patricia Wakenell, an associate professor of avian diagnostics at Purdue University’s College of Veterinary Medicine and one of an estimated 100 poultry veterinarians in the United States. “If you’re the person out there having to kill those birds, it’s a huge human toll. If you’re the veterinarian who can’t do anything about this, it’s a toll for us.”
Wakenell has led avian flu testing at Purdue since the start of the outbreak, and has been conducting post-mortem bird examinations and field work with backyard birds in the Midwest. The H5N2 flu strain has affected primarily laying hens and turkeys, and it is spread through wild waterfowl such as ducks and geese, who can carry the flu but are not affected by it.
That last fact is good news in Indiana, the No. 1 duck producing state in the country.
“That would be a debilitating loss to these companies that are here,” Wakenell said.
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