• Posted January 24, 2025

Bird Flu Outbreak Forces Culling of 100,000 Ducks, Threatening Last Duck Farm in Long Island

The last duck farm on New York's Long Island is facing an uncertain future after a bird flu outbreak forced the culling of nearly 100,000 ducks.

The highly contagious H5N1 avian flu, otherwise known as bird flu, was detected at the farm last week prompting a government-mandated quarantine and disinfection process.

“This has spread like wildfire here,” Doug Corwin, who is part of the fourth generation of his family to operate Crescent Duck Farm in Aquebogue, which has been open since 1908, told The New York Times. 

“I have done this all my life, and we are the last of this industry,” Corwin said. “It is gut-wrenching. You work your whole life for something, and then one day everything is gone.”

The farm, which supplies duck to restaurants across the Northeast -- including New York, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and Boston -- produces 3.5% of the ducks sold in the United States.

It is also the last remaining duck farm on Long Island, which had 90 farms in the mid-20th century.

The Suffolk County Health Department, which confirmed the outbreak on Tuesday, said state and federal officials were conducting “depopulating, cleaning and disinfection activities” at the facility.

The risk to humans is still considered low, though transmission is possible for farm workers who handle infected flock, according to Dr. Gregson Pigott, the Suffolk County health commissioner. 

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed 67 human cases of H5N1 since last year, including one death in Louisiana.

While Crescent Duck Farm’s future is in jeopardy, Corwin said he has some hope for recovery.

Government officials have agreed to spare several thousand eggs, which a local hatchery has offered to hatch. This could allow Corwin to preserve the farm’s prized genetic strain of ducks, known for their tender meat and meat-to-fat ratio.

“The reason I am in still in business is my genetics, and if I can’t preserve my genetics, then I am worthless as far as duck farming goes,” Corwin told The Times. “My customers are people who use multiple ducks a night -- chefs who use duck after duck after duck.”

However, Corwin said he is hesitant to rebuild unless the U.S. Department of Agriculture approves a vaccine for the virus.

“I don’t want to go through all of this again,” he said.

The outbreak has already forced Crescent Duck Farm to lay off 45 of its 75 employees.

“I’ve seen a lot of things in my years, but I haven’t seen anything like this," Corwin concluded.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on the current situation of bird flu.

SOURCE: Suffolk County (N.Y.) Department of Health, news release, Jan. 21, 2025; The New York Times, media report, Jan. 23, 2025