Local Infectious Disease Center...

A lethal strain of avian influenza is spreading across Asia, Europe and Africa, killing birds and some humans who come in contact with them. As U.S health officials make worst-case scenario plans for the spread of the H5N1 bird flu virus to this country, small backyard flocks are coming under increased scrutiny.

Commercial poultry farms have been practicing biosecurity for decades. Their flocks are tested, vaccinated, screened and scrutinized, and any diseases found are reported to state agriculture officials.

Backyard birds are another story. There is little regulation of the small poultry flocks that live scattered across the country. In 2002, the National Agricultural Statistics Service counted some 1.3 million laying hens on 82,000 small farms with flocks of 50 or fewer chickens.

Since migratory birds appear to be carrying avian flu from one country to another, backyard birds may be far more vulnerable to the disease than commercial flocks that live most of their lives indoors.

The agriculture department has begun an outreach campaign to backyard poultry farmers, urging them to step up biosecurity measures to keep themselves and their birds safe. Farmers are being told to call a toll-free hotline to report sick birds and to keep their birds securely fenced in.

The USDA is also in the early stages of creating a national database of every property with livestock, from large commercial operations to backyard 4-H projects.

The department's National Animal Identification System is voluntary at the moment, but registering with the government likely will be mandatory by 2008. Animals would be tagged and tracked.

So far, the effort has been met with mingled skepticism, exasperation and outright suspicion.

"We're not worried about avian influenza. What we're terrified about is the hysteria surrounding it," said Ussery, a retired postal worker who calls himself the Chicken Man of Hume. "The more paranoid among us think this is quite a deliberate ploy to get rid of backyard flocks."

In Asia, Europe and Africa, one of the first government responses to the bird flu outbreak was to ban backyard flocks in the infected regions.

In this country, outbreaks of mild avian influenza have led to widespread culling of domestic flocks. In 2004, Delaware and Maryland killed thousands of chickens after a handful of birds fell sick at three farms. After an outbreak in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, agriculture officials ordered the destruction of 4 million turkeys.

USDA officials acknowledge their biosecurity outreach efforts are being resisted.