No chickens, turkeys this year at Deschutes County Fair

One familiar feature of this year’s Deschutes County Fair will have a bit less variety, as 4-H organizers have decided there will be no chickens or turkeys on exhibit, or poultry market pens due to an outbreak of the avian flu hitting the poultry industry around the country.

A strain of HPAI viruses is “raising havoc in the poultry industry,” causing billions of dollars in damage, with two significant cases in Oregon backyard flocks, one of them in Deschutes County, 4-H Program Coordinator Candi Bothum said in a weekly update newsletter.

As a result, “I am so sorry to announce that only pigeons and doves will be allowed to exhibit” at this year’s fair, she said.

The particular strain of the virus is believed to be commonly carried by wild waterfowl and spread to domestic poultry through direct contact or from indirect contact with other wild birds, Bothum wrote.

“While the flu kills domestic poultry, the wild waterfowl are just carriers and show no signs of illness,” she said, also noting that “this strain is also not a threat to the public.”

“Because of the high risk to local flocks, the nature of the flu, and the many bodies of water with wild waterfowl so close, we determined it to be in the best interest of local flocks to stay home,” Bothum wrote.

Pigeons and doves will be allowed, however, “because there is no evidence they are susceptible to this strain and they are not carriers,” she said. “They are at a very low risk.”

Bothum added that area 4-H volunteers, members and families have been invited to a June 11 meeting to discuss possible alternative fair experiences “in order to keep these youth engaged and having fun, in spite of not being able to take their birds” to the county fair. It will take place at 6:30 p.m. at the OSU Extension Service office.