Crescent Duck Farm working to rebuild flock

Crescent Duck Farm continues its slow but steady march toward recovery after HPAI, or bird flu, was detected there in January. The 3,700 ducklings hatched six weeks ago have gained their white feathers and are growing steadily.

“I’ve said all along it’s a very long road back. I’ve got two flocks of ducks that are 5 1/2, 6 weeks old; they’ve done fine,” said Doug Corwin, owner of Crescent Duck. “To me, the magic number is 24 to 26 weeks, when the ducks are going to start reproducing.” 

Crescent Duck Farm is still in quarantine. The staff is still cleaning, following a wet disinfection with a dry fumigation. It is eligible to retest to see if the quarantine can be lifted, but with the birds being raised off site and breeding months away, Mr. Corwin is biding his time. 

“USDA toured the barn and said it’s in very good shape, but I pushed the testing date off until April 28,” he said. “It doesn’t speed my recovery at all to get them back on the farm. The longer I [wait] there’s that much more of a safety valve, just in case there is an isolated pocket of virus around. … It’s a very weak virus. It’s a very contagious, very deadly virus to poultry, but it’s a very weak virus as far as its ability to reproduce without any live hosts.”

According to its website, USDA has expanded biosecurity assessments to commercial poultry producers nationwide, prioritizing egg-laying facilities in top-producing states. More than 130 facilities have undergone assessments in 2025, with 38 assessments completed last week alone.

To help prevent further outbreaks, USDA now offers two free, voluntary biosecurity assessments: one focused on wildlife risk mitigation and another on general biosecurity improvements. Additionally, all farms affected by HPAI must complete a biosecurity audit before restocking flocks. USDA is covering up to 75% of costs for the highest-risk biosecurity improvements.

For Mr. Corwin, this is one part of what he sees as the only way forward for farmers in his situation.

“It’s going to be very, very, very hard to get out of this constant cycle that we’ve been in since 2022 without a combination vaccination and heightened biosecurity operation, because it’s so endemic now in the wildlife,” he said.

There is no need for concern over the remains of the culled animals and eggs; they have completely broken down at this point.

“If I was out of quarantine, I could spread [the compost] on any farm field I wanted to because [it is] 100% virus free right now,” said Mr Corwin. “USDA comes down every one to two weeks and actually looks at the stuff, plus every compost pile has about eight spots that had to be temperature recorded daily. Composting went extremely well.”

The upheaval at the federal level is affecting part of the recovery process and Mr. Corwin has yet to be reimbursed for the loss of his flock.

“I think certain things have been slowed down. I should have gotten some level of indemnification [already], but I haven’t received a penny yet, which is abnormal … I’m not crying over it, so long as it gets rectified eventually.”