PORT ANGELES — As of Tuesday, no new cases of avian flu in the Agnew area had been discovered by inspectors with the state Department of Agriculture.
A quarantine was established Jan. 20 in a 6.2-mile — or 10-kilometer — radius around 92 Cosmos Lane where a backyard flock of 118 birds owned by Sherry and Gary Smith were destroyed Jan. 18 after at least five birds died of the H5N2 strain of avian flu.
Inspectors have gone door to door since Jan. 19 within a 1.9-mile (3-kilometer) radius of the initial case to talk with people and, if they own poultry, ask that they allow tests of the birds.
The latest test results “have all come back negative,” Hector Castro, state Department of Agriculture spokesman, said Tuesday.
“So far, everything we have been getting back from our testing has come back negative, which is what we want to see.”
Testing is expected to continue into the near future, but the inspectors “are close to wrapping up,” Castro said.
The state Department of Agriculture set the quarantine on the movement of eggs, domestic poultry and poultry products within the 10-kilometer area around the Smiths’ residence.
For an interactive map of the quarantine area, go to http://tinyurl.com/PDN-avianflumap. Type in your address to see if your home is within the quarantine area.
Avian flu is lethal and highly contagious among birds but is not harmful to humans.
As of Monday, “it looks like the team has visited a total of 1,039 locations,” Castro noted.
“Of those, there were 32 locations where there was poultry where we were able to take samples that we can send for testing.”
There were other properties visited whose owners did not allow inspectors to take samples.
“There were some premises that had birds but declined to allow us to take samples for testing,” Castro said. “Of those, there were 22.
“This is a voluntary testing program, so we rely on the cooperation of the bird owners to be able to get the samples and send those off for testing.”
Inspectors have been visiting “high-risk” areas — places near waterways that draw large numbers of wild birds — in the rest of the quarantine zone.
“The way it works, when they find a location where there is an infected flock with avian influenza, they draw a 3-kilometer circle around that, and they do this really intensive sweep of the area,” Castro said.
“Beyond that, they draw a larger circle of 10 kilometers, and they do some spot checking in that area where they go to some premises, but they are not going to go door to door outside of that 3-kilometer zone.”
In the larger area, inspectors visited about 800 properties, Castro said.
Dr. Alan Huddleston, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, conducted a question-and-answer session Monday night at the Sequim Prairie Grange hall, where he told the 25 attendees that inspectors had found no news cases of avian flu in the Agnew area.
There is still no date set for the quarantine to be lifted, “but we just lifted the quarantine that was existing in parts of Benton and Franklin counties over in Eastern Washington, and that one was enacted on Jan. 7,” Castro said.
“We are about three weeks in and lifting that quarantine, so that gives you some idea about how much time we need to be able to go through and ensure that the virus hasn’t spread beyond the infected site.
“It could be a few more weeks at least for us to make that determination.”
Officials believe the contaminated birds were infected by wild fowl.
“Wild water fowl is definitely where we are thinking the disease is being spread,” Castro said.
“Obviously, it is being spread from bird to bird, which is why you will see a number of birds get sick within a flock once one becomes infected, but how they are getting sick seems to be tied with these migratory water fowl.”
Officials urge bird owners to protect their domestic birds from contact with wild water fowl and to remain vigilant in their biosecurity measures.
Castro encourages poultry owners who suspect sickness among their birds to contact state Department of Health officials at 800-606-3056.
Those who suspect wild birds of being ill are asked to call the state Department of Fish and Wildlife at 800-606-8768.
“We still want to hear about sick birds or people who have flocks of birds where they are seeing some of the birds dying,” Castro said.
The virus has not been detected in any commercial poultry operations in Washington or elsewhere in the nation, health officials said.
The state’s commercial poultry industry has a robust avian influenza testing program, officials said.
