Business as usual after disease scare at local poultry farm
WICOMICO COUNTY, Md. – Due to an influenza scare, a Wicomico County poultry farm had to depopulate 40,000 chickens after experiencing unusually high mortality rates.
“They’re being cautious. They’re doing exactly what they should be doing,” exclaims local poultry farmer Virgil Shockley.
Maryland’s Department of Agriculture is taking extra precautions on a small chicken farm near Willards after receiving inconclusive lab results for avian influenza.
They rid the farm of it’s 40,000 chickens and now they’re testing nearby farms to make sure the problem is handled.
“What they’re doing now is on the preventative side to make very sure that everything will be secure for the industry on the shore.”
Shockley tells 47 ABC disease in certain flocks isn’t abnormal, but the protocols in place for ridding the disease is pretty rigorous, especially when it comes to influenza.
“They’ll swab what they need in a three mile radius or six mile radius, whatever they determined to be a potential risk. So they take care of the situation number one that they have, and number two they go out and just make sure that everything is safe.”
He says it’s necessary here on the shore.
“Agriculture is the driving engine of the economy of all three counties and anytime anything comes up it’s going to affect that,” adds Shockley.
But the good news in Shockley’s eyes when it comes to this case is the fact that it didn’t come back positive.
“I think people are breathing a lot easier obviously for obvious reasons,” Shockley continues, “I don’t want anybody to be afraid of eating chicken because I plan on eating chicken tonight so the chicken industry is strong.”
Now although testing is still being done, some farmers say it’s a sigh of relief for the poultry industry here on Delmarva.
A statement from Delmarva Poultry Industry, Inc. says increased testing and surveillance will take place for the next 14 days to ensure there are no other illness cases in the surrounding areas.
They add that this incident has no immediate health concerns for humans and poultry meat and egg products were unaffected as well.
