Disease devastates Vermont family farm’s turkey flock
Peter Stone of Orwell, Vt., lost many of his turkeys to a foul cholera, a bacteria that attacks the bird’s respiratory system.
ORWELL, Vt. — In mid-October, a couple of days before Peter Stone planned to start slaughtering his turkeys for Thanksgiving, the Vermont farmer made his usual late-afternoon rounds to check his barns.
All looked well. About 33,000 turkeys gobbled atop their straw bedding inside the eight expansive buildings. But by the next morning, about 15 turkeys had died. Something must have startled them, Stone figured. When turkeys become frightened, they can trample each other in a panic.
After another 15 to 20 birds perished, however, Stone began to suspect an illness. The culprit was fowl cholera, a bacterial disease that attacks the bird’s respiratory system. The illness spread quickly from barn to barn, killing dozens of turkeys within hours and an average of 80 a day at its peak.
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