Federal, state and county agencies are urging chicken farmers to take precautionary measures against the potential spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza, or bird flu.
The bird flu virus, H5N1, was first detected in Hawaii in November at a bird sanctuary on Oahu. Since then, the virus has been detected at the Hilo Wastewater Treatment Plant in December, and last week trace amounts were detected on Kauai.
Although the chance for the virus to impact humans is low but not impossible — the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report 67 confirmed human cases of bird flu in the U.S., and one death, since 2024 — the highly contagious disease could spread its devastating impacts on the mainland poultry industry to Hawaii.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that more than 20 million egg-laying chickens died because of bird flu in the U.S. in the fourth quarter of 2024. That death toll includes the birds culled to prevent the spread of the disease. The USDA requires all chickens in a flock to be terminated if a single bird is infected, and reimburses farmers for each bird or egg destroyed in this process.
While the state can screen imported chickens for the bird flu, it cannot control the transmission of the disease by migratory birds, which the state Department of Agriculture considers the most plausible vector for the disease to have entered Hawaii.
The USDA and state DOA are advising poultry farmers to improve their biosecurity measures, including limiting contact between humans and poultry, sanitizing clothing and equipment after interacting with the birds, protecting free range birds from contact with wild birds or outside water sources, and more.
Meanwhile, the Hawaii County Council is urging the state to develop an “Avian Flu Response Plan” and consider alternative control strategies to total flock culling. A resolution introduced Tuesday by Hamakua Councilwoman Heather Kimball recommends that the state DOA and state Department of Health work with poultry farmers in Hawaii to develop a comprehensive response, testing and monitoring plan.
Hamakua poultry farmer Hattie Gerrish — who Kimball said helped devise the resolution — told the council the potential impact of bird flu on the Big Island is “very worrisome,” but added the use of mass cullings as a primary response to prevent the disease’s spread also is troubling.
“It doesn’t stop the spread of the virus, and it never will,” Gerrish said, noting the disease’s rampancy on the mainland regardless of the cullings, and that mass exterminations cannot stop migratory birds from reaching the island anyway.
Gerrish added the cullings are not humane, explaining that the typical ways of carrying out a purge is either by cutting off ventilation to a barn and raising the heat, leading to mass death by heat exhaustion, or by suffocating a flock with firefighting foam or gassing them with carbon dioxide.
None of these methods kill quickly, she said, and often leave the birds dying slowly and in significant pain or distress.
Instead, Gerrish said the state should consider alternatives to mass culling, such as quarantining infected flocks, vaccinations or breeding disease-resistant poultry.
The County Council’s Committee on Governmental Operations and External Affairs voted unanimously Tuesday in support of the nonbinding resolution.
But not all poultry farmers are worried about bird flu. Emily Taaroa, owner of Punachicks Farm, said “people need to calm down” about the disease.
Taaroa said she isn’t surprised bird flu is most rampant in large mainland farm operations, where animals are tightly corralled and contagion can rapidly spread, but added that pastured poultry farms — like Punachicks — have increased benefits for the birds’ immune systems.
Taaroa said she will carry out a cull as required if bird flu is detected at Punachicks, but said that the USDA reimbursement offered likely will not come close to paying for the farm’s birds.
“Are we losing sleep over it? No, since we’re taking steps at prevention and don’t consider our farm to be at a high risk for infection,” Taaroa said, quoting a Facebook post she wrote last week.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.