Cousins Lorraine and, Jo, and I went to a Storm Lake motel
to check about booking rooms for our family reunion in July, 2016. The desk clerk started shaking her head
before I’d even finished my sentence. The
motel is booked through 2016 and beyond to house workers involved with the bird
flu.
I’ve been following the results of the bird flu. Buena Vista County, where we used to live,
had 17 turkey or chicken facilities hit with bird flu. The farms were raising turkeys and chickens
and also “gathering” eggs for use in egg products.
Migratory birds seem to be the source but concern remains for
transmittal. Quarantines are in place, yellow
tape, a staffed tent checking anyone coming to the farm. Those going on the property don white
coveralls, and facial covering. Workers
have lost jobs at the facilities and workers have been brought in to do clean
up! White 15 passenger rental vans ferry
workers to Spencer or Storm Lake motels. My nephew talked to young men from New
Orleans brought up to do clean up.
The carcasses kept mounting and initially no one seemed to
know the best way to dispose of them. Burn them, bury them, compost them?
Friends Beth and Russ’s facility is using composting. The
carcasses are windrowed with corn stalks inside the facility and the
temperature is raised to kill the virus.
After the carcasses are removed the facility is
disinfected. This is a weeks’/months’
long procedure to verify that the facility is indeed virus free. Only then is restocking possible.
Some BV county facilities are hoping to be restocked by the
new year…if the wild bird migration doesn’t reinfect the facilities as they fly
south this fall.
