The Historic O'Keefe Ranch's male turkey, New Orleans, is seen in this Aug. 20, 2022 photo. New Orleans is one of the fowl lost in an avian flu outbreak at the ranch.

(HOWARD ALEXANDER / iNFOnews.ca)

Poultry at the popular North Okanagan museum, the Historic O'Keefe Ranch, have contracted avian flu.

According to an O'Keefe Ranch media release, the first signs of an outbreak were spotted last Saturday, with officials declaring the outbreak Sept. 18.

The first bird to die was the ranch's male tom turkey, New Orleans. Staff had hoped the eight-year-turkey's death was from old age but found out otherwise.

The sudden death of several birds shortly afterward caused alarm and the authorities were called.

"The ranch worked with authorities through the process of culling and continues to work on decontamination," the media release says. "A section of the ranch will remain quarantined until the decontamination process is completed. This is expected to take several weeks or longer."

The first recent case of avian flu in the North Okanagan was reported April 13.

Due to the threat of avian flu, the ranch's birds remained quarantined in their pens for months afterwards the initial case.

"Our birds are pretty spoiled," ranch hand Tambria Shortt said in the release. "We knew the quarantine was hard on them when our male tom turkey, New Orleans, decided to sit on a clutch of chicken eggs. He was even a great mother after they hatched... this is just a really hard thing to go through."

Since the death of New Orleans and the declared outbreak, the ranch has been culling the birds and working on decontamination. This process is expected to take about a month.

"The ranch will remain open to the public with very clear boundaries in place. We feel confident the remainder of the grounds are safe and we are happy to report the other animals at the ranch have not been affected," ranch manager Sherrille Franks said in the release. "This has been a very trying time for everyone involved and there have been many tears shed."

The Historic O'Keefe Ranch remains open Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m to 4 p.m. until the end of October.

For more information go here.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Ben Bulmer or call (250) 309-5230 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. 

News from © iNFOnews, 2022