More than 100,000 ducks at one New York farm are being euthanized due to an outbreak of the avian flu.
The animals were a part of the Crescent Duck Farm in Aquebogue, Long Island — one of the last duck farms in the area — which ceased operations due to the outbreak that was confirmed on Jan. 17, according to The New York Times, WNBC- TV and WABC-TV.
“Unfortunately, when you have a situation like this where you have a flock that’s infected, the remedy is to put the entire flock down,” said Dr. Gregson Pigott, Suffolk County’s health commissioner, per WABC-TV.
Pigott also noted to The New York Times that the avian flu “at this point is not transmissible among humans.” However, he said there was a risk of transmission between birds affected by the virus and the workers at the farm who were exposed to them, and they were investigating the incident.
“Yes, we’ve seen sporadic cases [of humans catching avian flu], but even in those sporadic cases, it hasn’t gone to the rest of their families, to the rest of their contacts. So, it’s really not getting into our human hosts,” Dr. Sharon Nachman with Stony Brook Children’s Hospital told WABC-TV of the risk of human-to-human transmission.
Although John Di Leonardo with Humane Long Island told the outlet that health officials are always weighing all the risks as “if this disease mutates” to “human-to-human transmission,” they could be “looking at the next pandemic.”
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There have been 67 confirmed human cases of avian flu in the U.S. since last year and one death — with 23 of the cases having been traced to “poultry farms and culling operations,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Doug Corwin, the owner of Crescent Duck Farm, told the outlets that culling so many birds at his farm could have greater impacts, as it has led to uncertainty with his business, which has been open since 1908.
“I have done this all my life, and we are the last of this industry,” Corwin told NYT. “It is gut-wrenching. You work your whole life for something, and then one day everything is gone.”
He said there was a “glimmer of hope” as the U.S. government has agreed to allow him to keep several thousand eggs, which may help him revive his flock in the future, per the outlets. Though, he voiced his hesitation to do so without a vaccine.
“I am not 100 percent certain I want to go through that unless the U.S.D.A. approves a vaccine for this virus,” he told the outlet. “I don’t want to go through all of this again.”
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