POULTRY RANCHER STAMINA TESTED FIGHTING OFF BIRD DISEASE PROVES COSTLY.

Byline: Alan Schnepf Staff Writer

YUCAIPA - Jim Hoover used to get paid a few cents each for the hens culled from his egg ranch in Yucaipa when they became too old to be productive.

But thanks to the outbreak of a deadly and highly contagious virus called exotic Newcastle disease, the old hens once considered an asset as staple ingredients for foods like canned chicken soup have become a liability.

Hoover, who has 670,000 birds at his ranch on the north side of Yucaipa, hasn't been hit by the disease. But, like most egg ranchers in Southern California, he finds the disease is hitting his bottom line.

And the added expense of dealing with Newcastle has arrived during the California egg industry's worst slump in history.

The disease, which does not pose a danger to humans, is now in its fifth month of ravaging Southern California poultry flocks.

Since the discovery of an infected backyard chicken flock in Compton last September, state and federal agriculture officials mandated a quarantine for all of Southern California. From San Diego to Ventura, birds can come in, but they can't go out.

Before the quarantine went into effect, Hoover used to ship the old hens to Tulare County, where they were slaughtered and processed into canned chicken. The older birds don't make good meat for fryers.

But with the quarantine in effect, Hoover can't send his nonproductive birds up north. He has to kill his birds at his ranch and send them to a rendering plant in Los Angeles.

Earlier this month, for the first time since the Newcastle outbreak, Hoover had some chickens to cull. Instead of shipping live hens up to Tulare County as he had for years, Hoover had to figure out how to kill 100,000 birds. Because it's a job he'd never done before, Hoover said he had to learn how to do it on the fly - and it became a logistical nightmare.

A truck loaded with dead hens sat outside during a warm weekend. The subsequent expansion made the mass of dead hens swell. By Monday, bird remains were pouring over the side of the truck.

The problem has since been cleared up. Hoover isn't going to let chicken carcasses sit outside during weekends any more, said Joan Mulcare, a manager for the San Bernardino Division of Environmental Health Services.

Hoover's problem, and the expense and extra work associated with it, is just one example of how Newcastle is straining an already distressed California egg industry.

Hoover's delivery drivers spend an hour disinfecting themselves and their clothes and their trucks every day so they don't spread the disease. One infected feather or a speck of chicken manure on the bottom of a shoe or a tire can transfer exotic Newcastle disease.

The time spent dealing with Newcastle is time that used to be spent packing and shipping eggs. The eggs also have to be sanitized before being shipped. Plastic shipping materials are being used instead of paper, and that can cost more, too. Hoover said the expenses add up.

But that's not as bad as dealing with birds infected with the disease.

If a single bird in a flock of 1 million tests positive, all of them must be destroyed in an attempt to eradicate the disease. The government pays owners fair market value for the euthanized birds.

The discovery of the disease at four more commercial ranches recently brought the total number of infected ranches to 12. An emergency task force of more than 1,300 workers has also found the disease in about 1,700 other ``backyard'' flocks.

About 2.4 million birds have been euthanized or are slated to be killed to slow the spread of Newcastle. Fighting the disease so far has cost taxpayers more than $30 million.

But the people who are suffering the most are egg ranchers. The producers say that since 1999, it has cost more to produce the eggs than wholesalers are willing to pay.

Egg ranchers have always experienced up and down markets. But the current downturn is devastating, the most severe that today's farmers can remember.

``These last 3 1/2 years have easily been the worst in history,'' said Paul Bahan, owner of AAA Egg Farms in Lakeview. ``A lot of guys who were here in the fall of '99 are gone.''

And now the ones who are still around have to deal with an epidemic of one of the world's most destructive poultry diseases.

``Everybody's down on their knees and if you get the disease it could be the difference between surviving and not surviving,'' Hoover said.

Bahan, who maintains a flock of 640,000 birds, said gigantic Midwestern farms are difficult to compete with. Their land is cheaper, they deal with fewer regulations and they can save money growing their own feed. Feeding chickens can amount to 60 percent of an egg rancher's expenses, he said.

So when a flock tests positive for Newcastle, producers now face the decision of whether it's time to depart the business.

``For a guy who's been losing money for three years this could be the first sizable check in a long time,'' Bahan said of egg ranchers reimbursed when they must euthanize their birds because of the disease. ``Do you put it back in? For the producer, that has to be a powerful thought.''

Ron Arnott, owner of Arnott Citrus and Poultry Ranch in Mentone, in San Bernardino County, said he had more than 130,000 hens in Redlands in 2001.

But the tough market prompted him to sell off the Redlands property for a housing development and move to Mentone. Today he has 300-plus birds and is shooting for a niche market selling ``range-laid'' eggs.

His family has been in the business since the late 1940s, but he's not sure how long it can keep going.

``If you put out 5,000 or 7,000 dozen a day, you can't do that for long,'' Arnott said. ``We have been selling assets - property - to pay for our habit of staying in the egg industry.''

Don Bell, a poultry specialist now retired from the University of California, said the industry will survive, but that there will be a shakeout of some of the smaller producers who get hit with Newcastle.

He said what helps is the fact California is at an egg deficit - more eggs are eaten by Californians than are produced in the state.

``Is there a future for the egg industry in Southern California? Yes, there is. It's important to be close to your market,'' Bell said.

And even though Newcastle is hitting the industry during an already tough period, it might hurt less than if it had struck when farmers were turning a profit.

``I think (egg farmers) would probably be more irritated if it happened when it's doing good,'' said John Gardner, deputy chief agricultural commissioner for San Bernardino County.

Still, Gardner said he knows one rancher who would get out of the business if his flock were hit with Newcastle.

``I can't say I blame him. How long do you stay in something where you're losing money?''

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1) The 300-plus chickens at Arnott Poultry and Citrus Ranch in Mentone so far are testing free of exotic Newcastle disease.

(2) Poultry ranch owner Ron Arnott carries a flat of eggs collected Wednesday from his ``range-laying'' chickens in Mentone.

Eric Reed/Staff Photographer