Some Hawaiʻi Island lawmakers want the state to come up with a humane plan to manage avian flu.
The Hawaiʻi County Council has introduced a resolution urging the state Department of Agriculture to work with local poultry farmers to develop a comprehensive plan to manage the flu. It heard the resolution in a council committee meeting on Tuesday.
“The main ask with this resolution is that the Department of Agriculture and Department of Health have a plan to address this issue in an expedient way, but also take into consideration consultation with our smaller local farmers before they institute any broad-ranging solution because this is going to have different impacts on different agricultural situations,” said Councilmember Heather Kimball, who introduced the measure.
The highly contagious avian flu, caused by the H5N1 bird flu virus, is widespread in wild birds. It was first detected in U.S. poultry in 2022 and has since spread to flocks in all 50 states.
Hawaiʻi was the last holdout state until November — when the virus was detected at a bird sanctuary in Wahiawā. The state Department of Agriculture said 70 birds in the area were “depopulated.”
In December the virus was detected on Hawaiʻi Island.
Hattie Gerrish and her sister, Emma, help operate a family farm along the Hāmākua Coast. The animals they raise include chickens and ducks.
The sisters contacted Kimball with their concerns and helped draft the resolution.
“ We could quarantine infected birds as California already does for some flocks. We could vaccinate poultry and some key wild populations like nēnē, like France and the Netherlands are already doing,” Hattie Gerrish testified at the council meeting.
“We could breed more disease-resistant poultry, just as wild birds are already becoming more resistant from exposure to the virus. I hope this state will also support small farmers with preventative measures. Lots of people here keep a few chickens or ducks for food, pest control or pets," she added.
The sisters argued that culling hurts kalo farmers in the state. Cayuga ducks eat invasive apple snails, which eat and damage kalo.
They also said there are prohibitive restrictions on importing ducks into the state, so being forced to kill those already in the state would make apple snail management more difficult.
The council resolution notes that the most common method of controlling the spread of the H5N1 bird flu virus is through mass culling. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said that more than 140 million birds have been affected by the virus since 2022.
Humans and livestock can also be infected with the avian flu. Nearly 70 human cases have been reported in the U.S. since 2022, and the first fatality was reported on Jan. 6. About half of the 950 worldwide cases have been fatal.
