Unique display at Houston remained educational

By MONETTE TAYLOR | South Central Texas Edition

Faux Chix -- The poultry exhibits at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo were present, but because of the threat of disease, "fake," yet colorfully cute chickens, were displayed. -- Staff photo by Carolyn Rost

April 8, 2004 -- On first glance, the chickens penned in the poultry area of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo seemed normal. On a closer inspection, visitors to the show realized that the chickens, roosters, and little, yellow chicks were just stuffed examples of the real thing!

Due to the earlier outbreak of avian flu in Gonzales County, show officials were forced to keep the "live" birds in the competitions a safe distance away from the Houston area. Since the area at the livestock show was set up prior to the outbreak, show officials decided to just add the "stuffed" chickens for viewing, along with written messages posted in the area, explaining what had occurred.

Although the baby chicks were not exposed to any flu strain, officials "just wanted to be safe," according to the messages. It was reiterated that the avian flu found in Texas was not the same or related to the deadly flu that killed a number of people in Asia.

In a "normal year," the poultry judging starts at the Fort Bend County Fairgrounds in Rosenberg, with the top 20 students taking their broilers and/or turkeys to the Reliant Park in Houston for final competitions. This year, the top 20 students were present at the competition, but without their chickens; and the crowd of spectators were shown the top boilers and turkeys via video screens.

Four live-bird markets in Houston were, also, closed down while health officials continued to track the disease that caused the 6,600 chickens on a farm near Gonzales to be killed. This was the first outbreak in Texas since the strain was found in 1983-84 in Virginia and Pennsylvania.

Shortly before the case in Texas, two other strains of bird flu were found in Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey. According to reports from The Associated Press, there was no connection to those outbreaks and the one in Gonzales County.