Foothills farm trying to prevent bird flu found in Arizona

CATALINA FOOTHILLS, Ariz. (KGUN) — Washing his hands, Scott Robins knows how important it is to prevent the spread of bird flu, recently found in Arizona.

With a few coops full of about 600 chickens so close together, Robins actively cleans them, keeping the straw in there and having everything covered. It’s a preventative measure he always uses as the supervisor at Felicia’s Farm, but also just in case the bird flu ever came to Pima County.

Maricopa County health officials say the bird flu was detected in wastewater earlier this month. The CDC says in Arizona, there are two probable cases with commercial poultry exposure in places like farms.

“First we’ll quarantine them and keep our eyes on them and make sure that they’re not transmitting it to each other. If it starts spreading, then we would have to probably put them down,” Robins said about prevention methods if the bird flu were ever to come to Pima County.

Robins said they would put them down humanely but said luckily the farm hasn’t found any cases in their chickens.

The Pima County Health Department says right now there are not any bird flu cases in humans and any risk is low. In Arizona, the CDC says there aren’t any human cases and exposure is typically rare.

Robins says they’re also preventing the spread by stopping school tours.

“When they get sick, they tend to spread it faster than people do, so when we have kids over here, we put masks on them and stuff like that. We normally do that anyway,” Robins said.

PCHD says they actively monitor for bird flu and work with state and federal agencies to track bird flu reports. They say they monitor wild and domestic birds, dairy farms, and now stray and domestic cats.

The CDC says the bird flu has been detected in ten other states and nationwide there are more than 60 cases in humans.

Robins says the virus spreading can depend on a few factors.

“Because most farms aren’t very close together, so urban farms could be a little bit more dangerous that way because you’re closer,” Robins said.