A “devastating” wave of bird flu has struck a Freeburg-area farm known for selling a variety of eggs from pasture-raised chickens, ducks, geese and guinea hens.
“I was shocked at how fast it went through,” farmer Joel Funk said Wednesday. “It’s devastating.”
Funk noticed some chickens had died last weekend and initially thought the deaths were caused by the cold weather that had moved into the Metro East. By Sunday he suspected the deaths were due to something deadlier than low temperatures.
He contacted the Illinois Department of Agriculture on Monday morning, and by Monday night he received a text saying that avian influenza had been detected.
All egg sales at Funk Family Farm, 8945 Jefferson Road, were halted, and all birds that survived the weekend had to be put down.
Funk plans to raise a new poultry flock and restart egg production, but he does not know when he will get permission from state agricultural officials and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Avian influenza, or bird flu, is a disease caused by viruses that “spread among wild aquatic birds worldwide and can infect domestic poultry and other bird and animal species,” according to a report by the Illinois Department of Public Health.
“Bird flu viruses do not normally infect humans. However, sporadic human infections with bird flu viruses have occurred,” the report states.
An assistant professor and wildlife extension specialist with the University of Illinois told the Belleville News-Democrat earlier this year that people who do not regularly spend a significant amount of time with confined chickens or migratory waterfowl are not at a high risk of contracting bird flu.
“I would say that the risk is pretty low for the average person,” Joy O’Keefe said.
Funk suspects the bird flu that struck his flock of about 1,000 birds came from a wild bird that visited his farm.
Before the outbreak, Funk had about 900 chickens and guinea hens, 80 ducks, and 20 geese.
“I am a licensed egg producer with the state of Illinois,” Funk said. “I was producing about 20 to 30 dozen eggs a day and I sell them by the carton.”
The USDA offers compensation to poultry farmers who lose their flocks to bird flu, but Funk does not know how much compensation he could receive. In the meantime, a friend has started a GoFundMe account to help Funk.
Flu outbreak response
Funk said the flu outbreak was “just about the worst thing to happen to a flock.”
Employees from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration responded to the farm on Wednesday, where the carcasses of dead birds were buried.
A tent was erected in the middle of a field, and federal employees wearing protective suits collected and processed sick birds. At a nearby ditch, Funk dumped the bodies of deceased chickens by the truckload.
Dead birds were scattered throughout the property, even outside the quarantined zone. A dead goose was found wedged beneath a coop, and farmhands were seen carrying chickens from another field nearby.
The two federal employees on site were strict about establishing a quarantine zone, even going so far as to request that a BND photographer destroy any photographs taken from within the edge of the perimeter.
“This isn’t for the public,” one said, then added, “it’s quarantined.”
Farm history
The Funk family established a farm near Freeburg in 1834, according to records from the Illinois Department of Agriculture.
Joel Funk, a 42-year-old combat veteran who served in the U.S. Army as an aviator, decided to continue the family farm operations after 13 years of active duty that included special operations assignments in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria.
Instead of growing grain such as corn, wheat and soybeans—like his father—Funk opted for a pasture-raised poultry operation on the 191-year-old farm. He became a sixth-generation farmer in his family and officially started his company in 2021.
“My birds aren’t in cages,” he said. “They’re not in a building. They go outside, they’re on grass. They eat bugs. They have a healthy diet.”
When Funk resumes selling eggs, buyers can purchase them at a self-service refrigerator at his farm, 8945 Jefferson Road northeast of Freeburg in St. Clair County.
Funk also sells eggs via the online retailer Market Wagon.
For more information, call 618-334-3828 or visit the Funk Family Farm page on Facebook.
Editor's note: This story was originally published by the Belleville News-Democrat. Mike Koziatek is a reporter for the BND, a news partner of St. Louis Public Radio. Photojournalist Joshua Carter contributed information for this article.
