HARRISBURG, Pa. — The Pennsylvania Game Commission on Wednesday announced plans to adjust its late-season pheasant stocking program due to the recent detection of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza at a private game farm in Northumberland County.
The news prompted the Game Commission's decision to release fewer pheasants statewide over the next two weeks than initially planned, to safeguard the agency's pheasant program and ensure it will continue next year.
In the eastern part of the state, the Game Commission will release pheasants this week and next week, essentially combining the final two planned releases into one release date for properties that receive birds in the stocking program.
These relatively minor adjustments, however, could significantly reduce the risk of an HPAI outbreak with potentially devastating impacts for pheasant hunters, the Game Commission said.
"Last week, the state Department of Agriculture announced the recent detection of HPAI at Martz’s Game Farm in Northumberland County," the Game Commission said. "While the pheasants released by the Game Commission originate from a different facility, Mahantongo Game Farm, where HPAI has not been detected nor suspected, that facility also is in Northumberland County."
The proximity of HPAI to the facility represents a concern, according to the Game Commission.
"If there was an HPAI outbreak there, agricultural regulations would require euthanasia of many or all of the breeding pheasants that provide stock for the Game Commission’s program, jeopardizing the program’s future," the Game Commission said.
So the Game Commission said it is taking some precautionary measures.
First, the agency will hold onto all of the hen pheasants, and about 5% of the roosters, that had been slated for release in the final two pheasant releases of 2023-24. Then, if HPAI remains undetected through continued testing of birds at Mahantongo Game Farm, pheasants there will be temporarily transferred to the Game Commission’s Loyalsock Game Farm.
That’s why the counties served by Loyalsock will get their final two releases all at once this week, according to the Game Commission. The pheasants to be released need to be cleared out to make room for those coming in, the agency said.
Loyalsock Game Farm serves the following counties to be stocked this week: Adams, Berks, Bradford, Carbon, Centre, Columbia, Cumberland, Franklin (State Game Lands 235 only), Lackawanna, Lehigh, Luzerne, Lycoming, Monroe, Montgomery, Northumberland, Perry, Pike, Schuylkill, Snyder, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Union, Wayne, Wyoming and York.
The remaining counties are served by the Southwest Game Farm, and rooster-only pheasant releases in those counties will continue as scheduled in each of the next two weeks, the Game Commission said.
A list of properties scheduled to receive pheasants in the next two weeks can be found on the 2023 Pheasant Allocation page at www.pgc.pa.gov.
“This wasn’t a decision the Game Commission took lightly because we know that pheasant hunters have been looking forward to the late small game season pheasant releases and will be inconvenienced by our making these adjustments on short notice,” said Ian Gregg, Wildlife Operations Division Chief. “However, we believe this precautionary approach is the right thing to do because it will significantly reduce the risk of disease impacts that would be far more devastating to pheasant hunting in the long run.”
