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.