Colorado's avian flu plan 'one of best'

Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News

Published December 2, 2005 at midnight

Text size

More More Business

WESTMINSTER - Colorado is far ahead of other states in the region in preparing for an avian flu pandemic, but it's also "probable" the disease will harm Colorado's $116 million poultry industry, health officials said Thursday.

"I'd characterize Colorado's plan as one of the best we've seen," said Joe Nunez, Region 8 director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

"Colorado's also been running some exercises, practicing putting the plan in place," said Nunez, whose region encompasses Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota.

"A lot of the other states haven't even come close to doing that."

Thursday, dozens of state and local agencies met in Westminster for the Interagency Influenza Response Coordination Conference.

Dr. Ned Calonge, Colorado's chief medical officer, told the group the chances of rapid human-to-human transmission of the dangerous H5N1 avian flu remain low but that it's "probable" the strain will reach Colorado sometime and infect birds here. And that could be devastating to the state's $116 million poultry industry.

H5NI has alarmed world health officials because of the 51 percent fatality rate among humans who have been infected. Still, virtually all of them got the infection directly from birds, which means it hasn't mutated - and may never mutate - to the point at which it can easily pass from human to human.

Following federal guidelines, Colorado is creating 15 emergency support functions, each headed by a state agency.

For example, the agriculture and natural resources function will be charged with surveying birds, shutting down poultry farms, and stopping the shipment of possibly contaminated birds and the wholesale slaughter of bird populations.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment would keep in daily touch with hospitals to detect any human contamination; the Colorado Department of Transportation would monitor airports and railroads, making decisions on quarantine; and the Division of Emergency Management would oversee assigning experts for quick response.

While it's likely this avian flu will reach Colorado's birds - probably migratory fowl first, then domestic turkeys and chickens - it's hard to predict when that will happen, Calonge said.

He noted that West Nile virus first was detected in Africa in 1937 and took 60 years to reach the United States.

Colorado has millions of chickens and turkeys, said Kristy Pabilonia, a poultry veterinarian with Colorado State University.

If avian flu kills birds on a commercial farm or in a backyard flock, the U.S. Department of Agriculture would compensate the owners at fair market value, said Linh Truong, spokeswoman for Colorado's Department of Agriculture.

All the birds at the farm or in the backyard flock would have to be killed, but there wouldn't have to be a wholesale slaughter of all the state's birds.

Still, once avian flu hits an area, the rest of the world is tempted to clamp on an embargo, which makes the birds in the area worthless commercially, at least in the short term.

Subscribe to the Rocky Mountain News