
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 30, 1994                   TAG: 9403300084
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ACCOMAC                                LENGTH: Short

SEA-DUCK ILLNESS HASN'T REACHED POULTRY FARMS

An avian cholera outbreak that has killed an estimated 25,000 sea ducks in the Chesapeake Bay region hasn't touched Virginia's multimillion dollar poultry industry, officials say.

Commercial chicken flocks are well protected against disease, said Robert Whiting, chief of veterinary services in the state Department of Agriculture.

"If the chickens get diseases, then it hurts their export business, because other countries don't want their product," Whiting said.

Poultry farms take steps from vaccination to using disposable coveralls and covers for shoes to prevent disease.

"They even disinfect the bottoms of their shoes," said Fred Diem, the agricultural extension agent in Northampton County on Virginia's Eastern Shore, a center of the state's poultry industry. "Basically, those people in the poultry business are pretty concerned all the time. But I am sure there is some more concern during an outbreak of any type of avian disease."

The Eastern Shore poultry industry includes chicken farms for such giants as Tyson Foods and Perdue. They mainly handle broiler chickens, Whiting said.

Gary Costanzo, a waterfowl biologist with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, said the recent outbreak of avian cholera in wild birds hasn't shown up in poultry flocks.

by CNB