ASHLAND — The familiar clucking, pecking, and wing-flapping of farm birds will be missing from the upcoming Ashland County Fair after the fair board voted on Monday to cancel the poultry shows due to a local outbreak of avian flu.
Last week, the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) discovered avian flu in a flock of backyard birds in Ashland County and in commercial birds in Defiance County.
The ODA later reached out to the remaining county fairs in Ohio to share their recommendations for biosecurity and best practices, which include keeping birds indoors and limiting contact with people, ODA Communications Director Shelby Croft said.
As a result, the Ashland County Fair Board voted to cancel this year’s poultry shows.
“We will not have poultry on the grounds,” Ashland County Fair Office Manager Cathy Rice said.
Instead, the fair board is working to put on poultry knowledge shows so that junior fair participants can still show off their work without live birds, Rice added.
Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, known as HPAI or avian flu, is a highly contagious, sometimes fatal disease that spreads via birds and objects like boots or tires, according to a fact sheet from the Ohio Department of Agriculture.
While avian flu can spread to humans in rare cases, it does not currently pose a threat to public health in the United States, according to the CDC.
