CABOT, Pa. — On Wednesday, Governor Josh Shapiro called Pennsylvania the epicenter of the bird flu, as the state has nearly half of the country’s current cases.
He said $60 million of state money has been earmarked for poultry farmers dealing with the spread of bird flu in the eastern part of the state. As of Thursday, Western Pennsylvania was still in the clear.
Poultry farmers in Butler County are doing what they can to keep bird flu away from their operations. David Jones raises 4,000 turkeys at his farm in Cabot, Butler County and knows all too well how an outbreak can ruin an entire season for poultry farmers.
“I figured we’d be up against it again this year,” Jones said. “I could have $250,000-$300,000 involved, and all of the sudden the flock starts croaking because I wasn’t careful enough.”
Jones told Channel 11 that the two main sources of bird flu are migratory bird droppings and trucks that travel from farm to farm.
“If a truck is going to deliver something for me, I’ll say, ‘Where did you stop last?’” Jones said.
Another precaution he takes: making his own feed and covering it with a tarp. Only egg customers are allowed past a certain point on his property. As for the rest of it, Jones has spent tens of thousands of dollars to invest in the proper infrastructure surrounding his turkeys and chickens.
“They go into a free-roaming pasture, but there’s a roof over it, and it’s all fenced in by chicken wire,” Jones said.
A few miles away, the Kennedy family raises poultry on their farm and also operates a commercial hunting preserve with pheasants.
“We try to keep everything in-house. We don’t buy poultry from somebody else and bring it in. We’re not using the same transportation crates,” said John Kennedy.
“The consistency has to be there all the time. You can’t take a break from assuring that all the safeguards are in place. The minute you do, that’s when there’s a problem,” said Val Kennedy. “We don’t have friends and family park or go near anywhere the animals are being raised.”
Jones said if bird flu spreads west of State College, he’ll have workers wear booties over the boots they already change into for an additional layer of protection.
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