[Pest Management] Bird Contamination

In their natural environment, birds can be one of the most beautiful aspects of nature. But when they decide to move into or onto food and beverage manufacturing plants, these same “beautiful” birds can damage buildings, contaminate foods and transmit disease. In fact, bird roosting has been implicated as a cause of recent major Salmonella food poisoning recalls.

Birds inhabiting buildings can cause a wide range of problems, including:
• Fire hazards. When near wiring, nesting can create a fire hazard and cause extensive damage to structures, roofs, eaves and machinery.
• Property damage. Bird droppings can deface property, create unsightly stains and erode some building surfaces. According to the New York Department of Environmental Conservation, accumulated bird droppings can reduce the functional life of some building roofs by 50%, and metal structures and painted finishes can be corroded by the high concentration of uric acid in bird droppings. Roof-top nesting birds will bring large amounts of nest material and food remains, which can obstruct drainage systems and lead to structural damage and food contamination.
• Safety concerns. Because of the high potential for contamination, the presence of birds—on and in buildings—will set off red flags to third-party auditors, clients and federal inspectors, said Gerry Wegner, Technical Director of ProGuard Commercial Pest Solutions. Even when evident only outside the building, bird droppings and nesting materials will create a perception of poor product quality and safety due to the contamination potential.
• Contamination. Bird droppings and feathers can contaminate foods and food supplies at all stages of processing and packaging.
• Health threat. Accumulations of bird droppings pose a health threat to humans when they become a growth medium for the air-borne pathogens Histoplasma capsulatum fungi (resulting in histoplasmosis—an incurable disease) and Chlamydiophila psittaci bacteria (which results in ornithosis or psittasosis).
• Disease transmission. Birds host parasites and insect pests that can bite humans and contaminate foods. Pigeons, for example, carry a variety of disease organisms, including toxoplasmosis, encephalitis and Salmonella typhimurium.

Prevention and Protection. Federal law protects all species of birds, except the three pest birds—pigeons, house sparrows and European starlings; some states and localities also enact legislation protecting these, and all, birds. However there are proactive and preventive steps you can take to help protect your facility and foods from avian contamination.

From the start, it is advantageous to include your pest management special-ist in the design and construction phas-es of new, re-designed or re-constructed facilities or areas. By implementing bird management strategies now, you can avoid having to later remedy structural situations conducive to nuisance bird attraction and invasion, Wegner said.

Buildings have structural features that provide the physical requirements sought by many bird species, including:
• a secure place to rest with a view of the ground and surroundings;
• recesses and cavities in which to nest that offer protection from the elements;
• access to a food supply.

As such, exterior signage and lighting fixtures, as well as interior roof bracing, trusswork and overhead light fixtures, all provide roosting and nesting sites for birds. In addition, flat roofs are perfect roosting and staging sites for the three common nuisance birds, as well as gulls.

Key strategies by which you and/or your pest management specialist can render exterior structural features unsuitable for birds are:
• Repair or cover structural features conducive to roosting, nesting or entry, e.g., construction gaps, vents and piping.
• Strategically anchor sheets of bird netting in potential loafing, roosting, staging and nesting areas.
• Use bird spikes to prevent roosting in retail signs and other areas.
• Install closely spaced arrays of coiled or stretched wire.
• Mount devices that deliver a mild electric shock upon contact.
• Apply polybutene sticky repellents on roofs and building edges (caution must be exercised to avoid creating an unsightly mess on building surfaces and disabling birds in public settings while using these materials). Chemical repellents, based on optical and taste prop-erties, can also be applied by certified applicators, where allowed by law.

Employee practices can be key in reducing bird attraction around the plant and preventing birds from entering. A few easy-to-apply strategies are:
• Close doors when not in use.
• Conduct daily clean up of cereal, grain, seed and other spills that attract birds.
• Keep external employee eating areas clean and trash receptacles covered, and ask employees to not feed birds.

If a bird does get into your facility, there are steps that can be taken based on plant policies, auditor and customer standards and local regulations. But, Wegner said, “Prevention is easier than live bird removal on an emotional level to animal rights activists—who may be facility employees, clients, the general public or media.”

This article includes information from a PCT article by Gerry Wegner, Technical Director of ProGuard Commercial Pest Solutions;  Technical Director David Sexton, Gregory Pest Prevention, Greenville, S.C.; and from Copesan University, Copesan’s Internet training.