Ducks are back at Crescent Duck Farm

Pekin ducks are being brought back to Crescent Duck Farm in Aquebogue. 

The first group of about 900 12-week-old ducks were transported to the duck farm early Monday morning, a week after a USDA avian-flu quarantine was officially lifted, Crescent Duck Farm President Doug Corwin said in an email last night.

Another 1,800 ducks will be brought to the farm in about a month, after samples of the new residents test negative for avian flu for three weeks, Corwin said. 

“It would be highly, highly doubtful that these healthy ducks would be positive, but this is USDA protocol,” Corwin said.

An avian flu outbreak in January shuttered the farm’s operations and forced the euthanization of some 99,000 ducks, leaving the future of Long Island’s last remaining duck farm in jeopardy.

The farm has been testing for the virus since it completed a massive farm-wide cleanup following the outbreak. Most recently, 25 samples were taken in 20 barns on April 28, Corwin said. USDA determined all of the 500 samples were negative, he said. The quarantine was lifted May 12.

The ducks being brought to the farm now were hatched offsite from sanitized eggs laid by Crescent’s hens before the bird flu outbreak. 

There were 15,000 eggs in all, but 9,000 of them were later determined to have been fertilized. Those were carefully incubated under closely monitored conditions, Corwin said at the time.

About half the hatchlings were hens, which will begin laying eggs at about six months of age. If all goes well, Crescent will be able to bring its signature ducks to market again by the fall of 2026.

The hatchlings represent the future of the Crescent Duck Farm, which was founded in 1908 by Doug Corwin’s great-grandfather, Henry Corwin.

Being able to save thousands of eggs for hatching was key to securing the farm’s future, Corwin said. 

Crescent has “developed a meatier bird that has enough skin fat to make it really, really succulent when you cook it, without making it overly fatty,” Corwin said in an interview in January. For that reason, it’s the duck of choice among the “white-tablecloth trade” to which his business caters. That selective breeding is “what’s kept us in business,” Corwin said. Retaining the Crescent duck’s genetic material was essential. 

But the threat of the highly contagious and pathogenic avian flu still looms. 

“Avian flu outbreaks have slowed, as the migratory birds are mostly stationary until the fall,” Corwin said in the email Tuesday evening. “However, USDA today reported over 2 millions egg-laying birds are positive in Arizona, and will be euthanized.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s policy of managing the outbreak through euthanization is not working, Corwin says. He is an outspoken advocate for vaccination of flocks.

Effective vaccines are available and are being used in Europe to stop the spread of avian influenza. It’s time to allow their use in the U.S., Corwin said in February.

Corporate agriculture, which is worried about losing exports, is mostly against vaccines, according to Corwin. This has led to the prolonging and spreading of this outbreak, he maintains.

The Trump administration allocated $100 million to grant for research on avian flu vaccines in February, Corwin said in an email this morning.   Many private companies and universities (including Cornell) are putting in proposals, he said. 

“Many vaccines for Avian Flu already exist, and it appears that the [funding is] a way to placate the vaccine proponents,” Corwin said in an email this morning. “Regardless, they are in no rush to approve any vaccines, as the political pressure against allowing vaccines (due to export concerns) is currently stronger (or at least louder) than our side hoping for vaccine approval.”