Region's Poultry Farms on High Alert for Virus

To minimize the chances of this happening, officials from the three states that share the Eastern Shore -- Maryland, Virginia and Delaware -- have worked to implement Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines on a local level, said Sue duPont, spokeswoman for the Maryland Department of Agriculture.

Those involve screening poultry workers for flu, fitting them for protective clothing for use during an outbreak and giving poultry workers top priority for flu vaccinations. The measures also keep the states communicating, duPont said.

"The disease knows no boundaries," she said, so the increased preparation after the previous outbreak "really puts us in a much better position. We all know each other already; we all know what to expect."

Farmers take further steps. Chickens generally come from a batch of eggs hatched at the same time, given the same vaccinations and moved to the chicken house at the same time. Then they move to the processing house at the same time, and the house is disinfected, Hohenhaus said.

The concern about avian flu on the Eastern Shore has not been limited to chicken health. The anti-flu drugs Tamiflu and Relenza, which once sat dusty on the shelves of Apple Discount Drugs in Salisbury, have sold at a rapid clip this year, owner and pharmacist Jeff Sherr said.

"It's probably a tenfold increase," he said. "In the past . . . we just didn't really dispense much. I think people are looking at it prophylactically now."

For David Conley, 53, a farmer from Centreville, Md., who raises 52,000 chickens in two long houses for Perdue, the precautions against avian flu come with the territory. He'll tell all about the disinfectant foot baths, chicken house cleanings and his fear about the devastation to the industry. But don't expect to see his efforts.

"If you're not in direct contact with Perdue Farms, you don't enter my houses," he said.

Staff writer Annie Gowen contributed to this report.