On February 18th and 19th, the USDA hosted a Live Bird Marketing Systems Working Group meeting in New York City, NY. I attended this meeting to participate in various HPAI-related discussions and to learn more about how the virus is affecting Live Bird Markets across the nation. The meeting was attended by many federal and state government employees as well as some university employees and laboratory personnel.
Live Bird Markets (LBMs) are defined as any facility that procures live poultry to hold or display for more than 24 hours and sells such poultry for onsite slaughter or offsite ritual use. While Indiana does not have any LBMs, several producers in the state provide poultry to LBMs in other states, such as Pennsylvania or Michigan.
Highlights from the first day included state reports from California, Florida, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania on their responses to an HPAI detection in an LBM. It was interesting hear how response activities differed between states depending on local population, geography, facility structure, etc. For example, the disposal of carcasses from an LBM that is located in a high-traffic area of New York City is significantly more challenging than disposal of carcasses at a rural LBM in Pennsylvania. Each state had their own unique challenges to face and that required creative solutions. This fostered some great discussions, as all were happy to share the lessons they learned and offer advice where they could to other states.
A large portion of the second day was spent reviewing the “Guidance for Response to a Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) Detection in a Live Bird Market” document. This is a guidance document that the USDA would like to publish as a resource for states to use as they navigate their response to an HPAI detection in an LBM. It has been in development since 2024, and one of the goals for this meeting was to finalize it for publication. Line by line, the group read through the four-page document. Some offered minor changes to format and grammatical structure, others suggested some clarifying content be added. This continued until, at last, the document was complete! USDA plans to publish this document online in the near future.
The meeting ended a little early on the second day so that attendees would have time to visit one of the many LBMs located in the NYC area. I took this opportunity to take a short train ride to Utica Halal Live Poultry in Brooklyn, NY, a small LBM in a residential district. As I entered, the market had a meat counter on the left side, a wall of cooking ingredients on the right, and a glass door in the back which led to a large, access-restricted area where cages of live poultry lined the walls. Overall, I was impressed with the cleanliness of the cages and the floor throughout the facility.
I am grateful to have had the opportunity to attend this meeting and to have been able to visit an LBM in person. I had a fantastic time in NYC and had an overall very pleasant experience at this meeting. Thank you to ISPA for supporting my attendance and to USDA for their efforts in organizing this event. I look forward to attending next year! Kyle Banaszak