Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Youth poultry program still flies
Bird-flu worries haven’t stopped state’s chick distribution
More than 25,000 fluffy chicks were packed up at the Lonoke County fairgrounds this week awaiting transport to 1,400 youths from 66 Arkansas counties who will care for the birds this year.
The youth poultry program has been popular during the covid-19 pandemic and continues to do well this year, despite rising avian flu cases across the country.
No cases of bird flu have been detected in Arkansas, according to the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service case tracker.
There are even more participants this year compared with last year, said Scharidi Barber, poultry instructor for youth programs for the Cooperative Extension.
“My program was busier than it has ever been during covid,” Barber said Tuesday.
“Honestly, covid opened the door for a lot of people to get into homesteading or doing what their grandparents did, backyard plots and small plots production because they were home.
“One thing we have really stressed this year is biosecurity,” Barber said.
Each child participating in Arkansas 4-H or Future Farmers of America programs will get a flock of 17 Lowmann Brown chicks, the best of which could be shown at State Fair in the fall.
The chicks are part of a University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture program that aims to teach youth about raising animals, particularly poultry.
The program is being held amid rising cases of the highly pathogenic avian flu confirmed in birds across the U.S. and in a couple of states adjacent to Arkansas.
The chicks came from a certified flu-free site and the 4-H kids students were taught biosecurity measures and how to recognize signs of disease to
keep their flocks healthy.
“We’ve really stressed these steps of biosecurity this year and that’s just because the avian influenza has really brought it to light,” Barber said.
Avian flu was first confirmed in a Missouri flock of 294,818 broiler chickens in early March. The virus also was confirmed in a Texas commercial gamebird flock of 1,649 in early April.
More than 24 million birds across the U.S. have been affected so far this year, with Iowa seeing the highest numbers at just over 13 million cases to date. The last significant nationwide outbreak of avian flu that also affected Arkansas was in 2015 when more than 50 million birds died.
The Arkansas Department of Agriculture’s Livestock and Poultry Commission issued a statewide avian influenza emergency rule March 23 until July 20 that limits poultry exhibition activities near areas with confirmed cases of bird flu.
Because county and state fairs will not occur until the fall, those exhibition events will not be effected by the rule this year despite the rising flu cases.
The rule prohibits animal owners from selling, trading, giving away, moving or exhibiting their poultry or domestic waterfowl if they are within 25 miles of a surrounding flock with a confirmed case.
Though no cases have been reported in Arkansas to date according to the USDA data, several have been found in commercial poultry and backyard flocks in the Atlantic Flyway and the Mississippi Flyway.
More than 24 million birds across the U.S. have been affected so far this year, with Iowa seeing the highest numbers at just over 13 million cases to date.