Summer has settled into northern Michigan. Memorial Day parades have passed, tourists have made their first visits and county fairs are just around the corner.
The Marion Fair in Osceola County will be the first fair of 2024 for the Cadillac area, complete with tractor pulls, live music and animal shows from Osceola County’s 4-H and FFA organizations.
In accordance with the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development’s recent poultry exhibition requirements, the Marion Fair will not be showcasing live poultry at the 2024 fair.
MDARDs requirements state that all poultry is prohibited from exhibition until there have been no new cases of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in the state of Michigan for 30 consecutive days.
Alternative showcase opportunities for Marion’s fair will be available. Plush poultry showings and pen decorating will be used to show the skills learned from this year’s poultry projects.
This is not the first time Osceola County has had to alter poultry showcases at their fairs. In the summer of 2015, an outbreak of bird flu caused a full summer stoppage of poultry showing. In 2020, an outbreak caused a similar stoppage to this year’s.
In the past, the virus affected poultry only. Now, the current outbreak of HPAI also is affecting dairy cattle.
According to MDARD, all lactating dairy cattle and those within the last two months of their pregnancy are prohibited from exhibition until no new cases of HPAI are found in dairy cattle across Michigan for 60 consecutive days.
Osceola County 4-H coordinator Jacob Stieg said the county is preparing for MDARDs exhibition requirements to impact both poultry and dairy cattle at the Osceola County Fair in late July.
According to Stieg, the Osceola County Fair will provide a virtual showmanship option for poultry projects. The county also is working on alternatives for dairy cattle showmanship.
“They’re [the county] working on very similar things like a virtual showmanship platform where they can move their cows, set their cows up and stuff like that,” Stieg said. “But, being so specific with lactating dairy cows, that’s new to us. So, we’re working on some other things, and I know our dairy educator is working on other competitions like skill-athons and quiz bowls, stuff like that.”
According to Stieg, 4-H youth in the county were educated about the virus throughout the winter months. Once MDARDs order was released and requirements for dairy cattle exhibition were introduced, Stieg began hosting educational meetings on the topic.
Stieg said he also notified the children and their guardians about what was happening with the virus at the time of bird pick-up.
“It’s been an open line of communication and education when opportunities pop-up,” Stieg said.
Much is still unknown about HPAI, how it spreads, and how it affects dairy cattle and humans. MDARDs requirements are out in place to “control and prevent the continued spread of HPAI in Michigan," according to their Risk Reduction Response Order from May 1.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, HPAI often has a high mortality rate when affecting poultry. Other symptoms of the virus in poultry include swelling or purple discoloration on various parts of the body, a drop in egg production, difficulty breathing, nasal discharge and coughing or sneezing.
In a May 30 press release, MDARD announced a second human case of HPAI was detected. Neither Michigan workers were wearing full personal protective equipment.
“This tells us that direct exposure to infected livestock poses a risk to humans, and that PPE is an important tool in preventing spread among individuals who work on dairy and poultry farms,” MDARD Chief Medical Executive Natasha Bagdasarian said. “We have not seen signs of sustained human-to-human transmission, and the current health risk to the general public remains low.”
