SALISBURY, Md. - After a positive avian flu case was found in a Wicomico County commercial chicken farm over the weekend, WBOC spoke with caretakers at the Salisbury Zoo about the safety measures implemented to keep the animals healthy.
Luke Krider, the animal curator for the zoo, showed us the steps he takes to enter the greater rhea habitat. The habitat has it's own set of plastic booties each person who enters the encounter must put on. When leaving the encounter, the booties are placed back in the container specific to that habitat. When visiting the habitat of red tailed hawk, he went through the same procedure, just with the booties that are specific to that habitat.
Krider explained that herons live in the trees above the zoo. He said many of the exhibits have cloths over the habitat's food and water area to prevent heron droppings from contaminating the animals on exhibit.
Another safety precaution taken is using a disinfectant spray to clean the bottom of your shoes before entering certain animal homes, including the education animals held in "Ed Holding." The disinfectant has also been used to spray tires of vehicles that needed to enter the property.
"We're all here at the zoo because we care about the animals, and we want to see them, live healthy and fulfilled lives," said Krider.
Zoo Director Chuck Eicholz says all of the animals at the zoo are currently healthy, but they have measures in place if that were to change and a bird were to test positive for avian flu.
"It's a treatable disease. So if we catch it early enough, it is treatable," said Eicholz. "So what we would do is then probably take that individual up to their animal hospital and they would get full treatment while we're there."
Zoo officials say whenever a dead bird is found on or near the premise, a sample is taken by the in-house veterinarian and is sent away for disease testing.