Avian flu is devastating farms in California’s ‘Egg Basket’ as outbreaks roil poultry industry

PETALUMA, California — Last month, Mike Weber received the news that every poultry farmer fears: his chickens tested positive for bird flu.

Under government regulations, Weber’s company, Sunrise Farms, had to slaughter its entire flock of laying hens — 550,000 birds — to prevent the disease from infecting other farms in Sonoma County, north of San Francisco.

“It’s a trauma. We’re all suffering because of it,” Weber said, standing in an empty chicken coop. “Petaluma is known as the egg basket of the world. It is devastating to see the egg basket go up in flames.”

A year after bird flu led to record egg prices and widespread shortages, the disease known as highly pathogenic bird flu is wreaking havoc in California, which escaped the earlier wave of outbreaks that devastated poultry farms in the Midwest.

The highly contagious virus has ravaged Sonoma County, where officials have declared a state of emergency. Over the past two months, nearly a dozen commercial farms have had to destroy more than 1 million birds to control the outbreak, dealing an economic blow to farmers, workers and their customers.

Central California’s Merced County has also been hit hard, with outbreaks in recent weeks at several large commercial egg-producing farms.

Experts say bird flu is spread by ducks, geese and other migratory birds. The waterfowl can carry the virus without getting sick and easily spread it through their droppings to chicken and turkey farms and backyard flocks through feces and nasal discharge.

Poultry farms in California are implementing strict biosecurity measures to combat the spread of the disease. State veterinarian Annette Jones urged farmers to keep their flocks indoors until June, including organic chickens that must have access to the outdoors.

“We still have to deal with migration for a few months. So we need to be as vigilant as possible to protect our birds,” said Bill Mattos, president of the California Poultry Federation.

The loss of local chickens led to a spike in egg prices in the San Francisco Bay Area during the holidays, before supermarkets and restaurants found suppliers from outside the region.

Although bird flu has been around for decades, the current outbreak of the virus, which began in early 2022, has prompted officials to slaughter nearly 82 million birds, mostly egg-laying chickens, in 47 U.S. states, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. When the disease is found, the entire herd is slaughtered to help limit the spread of the virus.

The price of a dozen eggs more than doubled to $4.82 at its peak in January 2023. Egg prices returned to their normal range as egg producers built their flocks and outbreaks were contained. Prices for turkey and chicken also rose, partly as a result of the virus.

“I think this is an existential issue for the commercial poultry industry. The virus is present on every continent except Australia right now,” said Maurice Pitesky, a poultry expert at the University of California, Davis.

Climate change increases the risk of outbreaks because changing weather patterns disrupt the migration patterns of wild birds, Pitesky said. For example, last year’s exceptional rainfall created new habitat for waterfowl throughout California, including areas near poultry farms.

In California, the outbreak has affected more than 7 million chickens in about 40 commercial flocks and 24 backyard flocks, with most outbreaks occurring in the past two months on the North Coast and Central Valley, the USDA said.

Industry officials are concerned about the growing number of backyard chickens that could become infected and spread bird flu to commercial farms.

“We have wild birds that are full of viruses. And if you expose your birds to these wild birds, they can become infected and sick,” said Rodrigo Gallardo, a UC Davis researcher who studies bird flu.

Gallardo advises backyard chicken owners to wear clean clothes and shoes to protect their flocks from contamination. If an unusual number of chickens die, they should be tested for bird flu.

Ettamarie Peterson, a retired teacher in Petaluma, has a flock of about 50 chickens that produce eggs and sells them from her backyard shed for 50 cents each.

“I’m very concerned because this avian flu is transmitted by wild birds, and there is no way I can prevent the wild birds from coming through and leaving the disease behind,” Peterson said. “If there are any fallen in your flock, you must destroy the whole flock.”

Sunrise Farms, which was founded by Weber’s great-grandparents more than a century ago, became infected despite having strict biosecurity measures in place to protect the herd.

“The virus hit the birds so bad and you walked in so quickly and the birds were just dead,” Weber said. “Heartbreaking does not describe how you feel when you walk in and completely healthy young birds have just been released.”

After euthanizing more than half a million 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 coops.

Weber hopes the farm will get approval from federal regulators to bring chicks back to the farm this spring. It then takes another five months before the hens are mature enough to lay eggs.

He feels fortunate that two farms he co-owns are not infected and are still producing eggs for his customers. But recovering from the outbreak won’t be easy.

“We have a long road ahead of us,” Weber said. “We’re going to give it another go and try to keep this family of employees together because they’ve worked so hard to build this into the company it is today.”