By JAKE OFFENHARTZ, Related Press
NEW YORK (AP) — Dwell poultry markets in New York Metropolis raced to dump all their chickens and different fowl Friday after seven instances of avian flu have been detected and state officers ordered markets within the metropolitan space to shut for per week.
Gov. Kathy Hochul stated there was no rapid menace to public well being and that the short-term closure of chook markets within the metropolis and its Westchester County and Lengthy Island suburbs got here out of an abundance of warning. Avian flu has hit farms nationwide, led to the slaughter of thousands and thousands of birds and pushed up egg costs, although officers say no instances have been detected amongst people in New York.
Outdoors the Wallabout Poultry market in Brooklyn, a line of shoppers took numbers and picked their chickens, which workers snatched from crowded cages, weighing them the other way up, earlier than bringing them to a backroom to be slaughtered.
“I’m not worried about any bird flu,” stated Stan Tara, a 42-year-old Brooklyn resident, as he bought a big hen for $22.50. “It’s the same as you buy from the supermarket. A little more expensive, but at least it’s fresh.”
The first chook flu demise within the U.S. was reported final month in Louisiana, with well being officers saying the particular person was older than 65, had underlying medical issues and had been in touch with sick and useless birds in a yard flock.
The H5N1 pressure of chook flu has been spreading amongst wild birds, poultry, cows and different animals. Officers have urged individuals who come into contact with sick or useless birds to put on respiratory and eye safety and gloves when dealing with poultry.
Greater than 156 million birds nationwide have been affected by the outbreak, many at giant farming operations which have needed to slaughter their whole flocks.
Some animal rights teams, in the meantime, questioned the aim of a state order that allowed the markets to proceed promoting fowl, relatively than shutting them down instantly.
“The public is going into markets where no one knows if there are outbreaks of avian flu, then taking home dead birds that may or may not be infected,” stated Edita Birnkrant, govt director of NYCLASS, which has lengthy raised alarms about situations inside the metropolis’s roughly 70 reside animal markets. “It’s ludicrous.”
U.S. egg costs are prone to stay excessive previous Easter and effectively into 2025, largely due to avian flu, in line with CoBank, a Denver-based supplier of loans and different monetary providers to the agriculture sector.
The extremely contagious virus has affected almost 100 million egg-laying hens within the U.S. since 2022.
However CoBank stated different components are additionally inflicting provide constraints and driving up costs, corresponding to skyrocketing shopper demand for eggs in recent times. Quick-growing breakfast and brunch chains like First Watch are additionally consuming up provides.
Related Press writers Anthony Izaguirre and Michael Hill in Albany, New York, and Dee-Ann Durbin in Detroit contributed to this report.
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