ONTONAGON – Last week, a press release from the Michigan Dept of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) announced the presence of highly pathogenic avian influenza (Bird flu) was detected in a backyard flock in Ontonagon County. Ontonagon County Emergency Management and 911 Director Mike Kocher received the release and said he has no more information on the topic, as MDARD would not disclose further information. “They wouldn’t even share with me where in the county or how large a flock,” he commented.

Jennifer Holton, MDARD media contact, said MDARD is prohibited by state law from disclosing detailed information, largely to protect the identity of the animal owner. “Public Act 466, which is the animal industry act, specifies under law that we cannot disclose any identifiable information as part of an animal disease investigation,” Holton said, “so essentially, it is animal HPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act).”

Ontonagon County officials suggested contacting the local Health Dept. Western UP Health Dept. Health Officer & Chief Executive Peter Baril said his office is restricted by the same laws as MDARD. “From our standpoint, the reason you don’t see additional information from our office is these operations are not that common,” Baril said, “and if we release anything related to health information, it’s very easy to single out the individual who the farm or back yard operations could possibly belong to. So, any additional information on our behalf would be a violation of HIPAA.”

Baril said the Health Dept. only concerns itself with people, while MDARD is concerned with animals, adding WUPHD receives the same information as everyone else. “The thing we get that nobody else sees,” Baril said, “is we know who owns those animals and who may have been exposed to them. Then, it’s our responsibility to do the public health piece, which would be check-ins and monitoring with the people who own those flocks.”

Baril said the MDARD releases have a two-fold purpose. One is to alert the public in a given area that the virus has been detected and to take proper precautions to avoid contracting it or spreading it to other flocks. The other is to caution flock owners in the area if they see their own birds displaying unusual symptoms to contact MDARD.

“It’s an awareness level thing that hey, this is around,” Baril said. “Avian flu is a communicable disease among those animals, It can be transferred from flock to flock, especially when there’s wild birds that can move from flock to flock. You might have chickens specifically on your property, but a goose can easily fly from place to place.”

Holton concurred with Baril. “There is a list of reportable diseases in the state of Michigan that is mandatory to report if there is a detection of a disease, she said, “and maybe it comes through a local veterinarian or something like that.” In the event a reportable disease is detected, it must be reported to the state veterinarians, Holton said. “If there is a confirmed detection, we put out an animal health alert notice to notify other livestock owners and others in the area that they should be taking every necessary precaution for a biosecurity.

“Biosecurity is just an easy way of saying doing everything that you can to reduce the potential exposure of an animal to the diseases,” Holton said.