PETALUMA, Calif. — Last month, Mike Weber learned the news every chicken farmer dreads. His chickens had tested positive for bird flu.
Under government regulations, Mr. Weber’s company, Sunrise Farms, had to slaughter its entire flock of 550,000 hens to prevent infection from spreading to other farms in Sonoma County, north of San Francisco.
“It’s traumatizing. We’re all experiencing grief because of it,” Weber said, standing in an empty chicken coop. “Petaluma is known as the egg basket of the world. It’s shocking to see an egg basket go up in flames.”
A year after bird flu caused record egg prices and widespread egg shortages, the disease known as highly pathogenic avian influenza has escaped an earlier wave of epidemics that devastated chicken farms in the Midwest. It’s causing havoc in California.
A highly contagious virus has hit Sonoma County, prompting authorities to declare a state of emergency. In the past two months, nearly a dozen commercial farms have had to kill more than 1 million birds to control outbreaks, causing an economic blow to farmers, workers, and their customers.
Merced County in central California has also been hard hit, with outbreaks occurring at several large commercial egg farms in recent weeks.
Experts say avian influenza is spread by ducks, geese and other migratory birds. Waterfowl can carry the virus without getting sick and easily spread it to poultry farms, turkey farms, and backyard flocks through their droppings and nasal secretions.
California poultry farms have implemented strict biosecurity measures to limit the spread of disease. State veterinarian Annette Jones urged farmers to keep their flocks indoors through June, including organic chickens that are required to have outdoor access.
“Migration will continue for several more months, so we must be as vigilant as possible to protect our birds,” said Bill Matos, president of the California Poultry Federation.
A decline in local chickens caused egg prices in the San Francisco Bay Area to soar over the holidays before supermarkets and restaurants found suppliers from outside the area.
Bird flu has been around for decades, but the current virus outbreak, which began in early 2022, has caused authorities to kill nearly 82 million birds in 47 U.S. states, most of them eggs, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They are said to be slaughtering chickens for their own use. When a disease is discovered, the entire herd is slaughtered to reduce the spread of the virus.
At its peak in January 2023, the price of 12 eggs more than doubled to $4.82. As egg producers expanded their flocks and the outbreak was brought under control, egg prices returned to normal ranges. The price of turkey and chicken has also skyrocketed due to the virus.
“I think this is an existential issue for the commercial poultry industry. The virus is present on every continent except Australia at this point,” said Maurice Pitesky, a poultry expert at the University of California, Davis.
Piteski said climate change is increasing the risk of outbreaks because changing weather patterns disrupt bird migration patterns. For example, last year’s unusual rainfall created new waterfowl habitat across California, including areas near poultry farms.
In California, outbreaks have affected more than 7 million chickens in about 40 commercial flocks and 24 backyard flocks, with most of the outbreaks occurring in the past two months on the North Coast, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It happened in the Central Valley.
Industry officials are concerned that growing numbers of backyard chickens could become infected and spread avian influenza to commercial farms.
“There are wild birds that are full of viruses. And if you expose your bird to these wild birds, they can get infected and get sick,” said Rodrigo Gallardo, a researcher at the University of California, Davis, who studies avian influenza. says.
Gallardo advises backyard chicken owners to wear clean clothes and shoes to protect their flock from infection. If an unusual number of chickens die, they should be tested for avian influenza.
Ettamarie Peterson, a retired Petaluma teacher, has a flock of about 50 chickens that lay eggs in a backyard barn and sell them for 50 cents each.
“We’re very concerned because this bird flu is transmitted by wild birds. There’s no way to stop wild birds from coming in and leaving behind the disease,” Peterson said. “If you have an infected person in your herd, you have to kill the whole herd.”
Sunrise Farm, which Weber’s great-grandparents started more than 100 years ago, was infected despite strict biosecurity measures in place to protect its herd.
“The virus was so bad on the birds that it got to them very quickly, and the birds were just dying,” Weber said. “The feeling you get when you walk into a perfectly healthy young bird just being laid to rest is beyond heartbreaking.”
After euthanizing more than 500,000 chickens at Sunrise Farms, Weber and his employees spent the Christmas holidays disposing of the carcasses. Since then, they have been cleaning and disinfecting the chicken coop.
Weber hopes the farm can get approval from federal regulators to return the chicks to the farm this spring. It then takes another five months for the hen to grow enough to lay eggs.
He feels lucky that the two farms jointly owned by the company are free of infection and continue to produce eggs for customers. However, recovering from the spread of infection will not be easy.
“We have a long road ahead of us,” Weber said. “We’re going to try and solve this again and try to bring this family of employees together because they’ve worked so hard to build this into a company.”