ODA Crews Continue to Monitor Crook County Farm

The Oregon Department of Agriculture continues to monitor a Crook County farm where bird flu led to the euthanization of around 70 ducks and geese as well as five pigs.  State Veterinarian Dr. Ryan Scholz said they’re testing other animals at the property, but not neighboring farms.

“Because this wasn’t a commercial operation, we don’t go door to door to do active testing.  We do increase outreach in the area, we do do passive monitoring through some different surveillance mechanisms.” 

Scholz said the virus is spread by wild birds, which migrate through Oregon at a higher rate this time of year.

"There’s indications that there are infected waterfowl passing through just about every county in our state right now," he said.  "So that’s part of the reason why we don’t really focus on just this area, because there isn’t any evidence of spillover off this farm from this particular infection.”

The Crook County outbreak is the first detection of bird flu in swine in the U.S., and while all five pigs from the farm were put down to prevent the spread, only one was infected.

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