ABOVE: Farmer and Ag Teacher Andrew Moeller presents in front of the Fairmont Chamber of Commerce Agri-Business attendees Tuesday at the Ranch in Fairmont.

FAIRMONT – From his personal story, local farmer and Fairmont High School ag teacher Andrew Moeller discussed avian flu and its dangerous impacts at Tuesday’s Chamber of Commerce Agri-Business meeting.

Moeller said he is currently one of the bigger poultry producers in the Martin County Area and the only state-certified Emu producer in Minnesota.

“I legally can transport the birds across state lines with all the surrounding states of Minnesota,” he said. “I’ll ship eggs to anywhere in the US. I’ve shipped them to 46 of 50 states over the past few years. Chicks, people come and pick them up. That was my big side gig. I paid for college on that.”

All of his operations came to a screeching halt in November when Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) infected his farm. He said the flu has been an issue before in Martin County. It canceled state and county poultry showings in 2015 due to a mutation allowing the virus to survive cold temperatures.

“The reason we keep on seeing an increase in this virus is being spread by wild waterfowl,” Moeller said. “Mostly they are landing in a field. They are depositing the viral matter through any sort of bodily fluids. They take off and it’s going to freeze into the soil. Next spring, when the waterfowl comes back through the same flyaways and lands in the same areas, they pick it back up again.”

He said he first noticed potential symptoms one night while doing chores. The next afternoon, half of his chicken fleet was showing symptoms.

“It’s a very fast and violent sickness,” Moeller said. “It attacks internal organs. Their lungs are filling up with fluid, they go hypoxic. They don’t die until complete organ failure. It’s a very nasty process.”

The sickness was immediately reported. While the Minnesota Department of Health investigated first, once Emus came into question the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) took over.

“My emu operation was the first outbreak that affected emus the USDA was able to get their hands on,” Moeller said. “They wanted numbers. They wanted to be able to see what the death rate was with those birds.”

In chickens, the mortality rate is 100 percent. Moeller’s family was also tested for the disease, but came back negative, as did his dog and barn cats.

At the time, Moeller’s Emu operation was listed as a hobby operation. He said this gave him the ability to tell the USDA he did not want his Emu’s euthanized. Moeller said the USDA agreed, as they wanted to see if any Emus survived.

Unfortunately, his standard laying hens would not be so lucky. They were kept in a different spot, on the hog site. Moeller said USDA officials are very concerned with the most recent strain of HPAI spreading to hogs because viruses mutate much easier in pigs than other animals or humans.

Because of this, all of them had to be euthanized. They, along with the hobby chickens, ducks and other miscellaneous animals on the farm were put down. For the beef cattle and sheep, the USDA gave Moeller the choice to hold on to them.

Of the 13 Emus, only five survived. Of the survivors, only one was a male. Moeller said the breeding habits of Emus make this development more of a blow.

“They are pretty picky breeders,” he said “During breeding season, if you have a female who has picked her male if you introduce another female to that pen, she will kill it. I only have one functional pair.”

Fortunately, a small group of replacement laying hens have been secured and are living in an isolated facility on the farm. After four months, Moeller was able to reopen the farm three days ago.

In talking with the USDA, Moeller said another pandemic may come from a mutated form of the avian influenza if it gains the ability to spread from human to human. Vaccines for the current variants are being developed. Vaccines have been effective in nearly wiping out diseases like Newcastle Virus.

Overall, Moeller said he wouldn’t count on egg or poultry products lowering in price anytime soon.

“Especially with the eggs, as we’re losing laying hens,” he said. “We can’t just repopulate laying hens right away. They have to be hatched. Every egg that is being held back is not going into the market. Right now, it’s almost more to ship that egg to the consumer versus keeping it back for a replacement, because they’re making so much money. It’s just going to be a long process to build back.”

Fairmont Chamber of Commerce President Kandi Menne said it was shocking to hear about what Moeller had gone through.

“We’ve all been troubled about the egg prices and everything else,” she said. “To hear it from a personal side, the massiveness of what it was. They were being honest, reporting their situation. All of the paperwork and everything they had to go through to wait before they could start up with their business again. I had no idea.”

Agri-Business meetings take place the third Tuesday of every month from November through May. Each meeting has a different speaker from the ag community and the Chamber has been working to bring in more speakers to talk about various topics in a goal to improve meeting attendance and educate members about the ag community.