Bird flu devastates California hatchery: Thousands of ducks, geese and eggs lost

By Felix Cortez

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    GONZALES, California (KSBW) — Tens of thousands of ducks and geese had to be put down after the bird flu crept into a hatchery in Monterey County.

“This is the worst,” said John Metzer, owner of Metzer Farms in Gonzales.

Metzer says he was forced to destroy his entire flock of ducks and geese, along with thousands of eggs, after the bird flu was detected at his farm last month.

“And it spreads like wildfire so if it comes onto a farm, you can’t just destroy all the birds in one building that were infected there, it spreads so easily that everything on the farm has to be put down,” Metzer said.

Metzer believes migrating ducks may be to blame for the contamination. More than 13,000 birds were put down, and 90,000 eggs were destroyed at the farm. Four jobs are now on the line and it could be weeks before Metzer can repopulate his hatchery.

“Losing potential income because a lot of these birds were destined to start laying eggs in the spring when we need lots of eggs, and now they’re not going to do that, so we’re either going to be buying eggs, or we’ll be short in product for customers,” said Metzer.

Last year, the Avian flu wiped out the entire flock at the company’s Hollister plant, and did the same thing two years ago in Gonzales.

“Obviously, we’re very concerned, and we’re doing everything we can to prevent the entry of the disease, but it gets into places that extraordinary efforts are being taken to prevent it, and it still gets in,” said Metzer.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, more than 50 million commercial birds have been impacted nationwide in just the last 30 days. Governor Gavin Newsome has declared a state of emergency in California, and local ag leaders are on high alert.

“So a lot of communication over the last several months with a lot of our livestock industry to make sure what’s going on and what steps they can take to protect their operations as well as their employees,” said Monterey County Ag Commissioner Juan Hidalgo.

Hidaldo said it could be months before we’re out of the woods.

“Typically is during the winter months when avian influenza is more prevalent here in California, the cooler weather, the migration of the birds in the fall, all of that has an impact, so we still have a ways to go here in our state to hopefully be able to get a handle and control of this virus,” Hidalgo said.

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