ISOLATE THE DEAD OR SICK BIRDS IMMEDIATELY

• Immediately isolate dead or sick birds away from the rest of your healthy birds, so as to help prevent the spread of disease between birds.
• Make sure your sick ones are at least 33 feet away from the rest of your flock and that they cannot reach your healthy birds physically or by coughing/sneezing through the barriers that divide them.
• Use separate equipment, litter and feed for your isolated birds. 
• Clean and disinfect any equipment that the dead or sick bird has come into contact with.
• Before handling your healthy birds again, change into clean clothes, and wash your hands thoroughly.

CONTACT A VET

If you suspect that your bird is sick, it is advisable to always get a proper diagnosis from a trusted veterinarian and to treat the disease properly and promptly. Find a vet in your Southern California area here.

REPORT YOUR SICK OR DEAD BIRDS 

Call the statewide sick bird hotline at 1-866-922-BIRD (2473). 

Additionally, you can also call the USDA’s toll-free hotline at 1-866-536-7593 or contact your veterinarian to report sick birds. 

CALL THE CALIFORNIA ANIMAL HEALTH AND FOOD SAFETY LAB

The California Animal Health and Foody Safety Lab (CAHFS) laboratory is a statewide laboratory (set up in partnership with the California Department of Food and Agriculture and University of California, Davis) that protects the health of livestock and poultry. CAHFS works to detect and rapidly diagnose diseases in animals. 

After you call the hotline, staff from the California Avian Health and Education Network (CAHEN) will work with you to collect and submit samples from your birds to CAHFS or instruct you how to submit them yourself. In the event that you do not call the hotline, you can contact this laboratory yourself for a low-cost diagnostic. If you do have a dead bird, please preserve it on ice or in a refrigerator, but do not freeze it. Try to submit it within 24 hours of death if possible. This will make it possible for CAHFS to provide you with more complete answers

CAHFS provides a necropsy exam for poultry type birds, which is done to determine what the disease is and if it is transmittable to humans. Either sick or dead birds may be submitted for necropsy exams. If you submit a live sick bird, CAHFS will humanely euthanize it before the exam begins. A veterinary pathologist will perform the exam. To request a necropsy exam, you must first fill out a submission form and pay a small fee. Shipping information and the submission form is listed here. 

TAKE BIOSECURITY MEASURES

While you wait for the results, or the next steps, it is important to keep practicing biosecurity measures. Doing so can help prevent the spread of more disease and keeps your birds safe!