Farmers across Israel on Monday reported losing tens of thousands of poultry birds as an extreme heat wave struck across Israel the day before.
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"God, help us. I've lost 500 birds. We don't know what to do. The entire coop is dead," said Kobi Sarmili from Moshav Margaliot, who has been raising laying hens for 45 years.
Kobi Sarmili inspects the damage in his coop following intense heat wave
More than 10,000 laying hens have perished due to the intense and unusual heat wave in Margaliot alone. A similar number of birds died in Moshav Dovev, and many coops in Dalton were also affected. "The situation is worsening; all my birds are dying. I had 2,500 birds, and 700 have already died. There's no place to bury them. All the burial pits are full," Sarmili updated.
He described how on Sunday afternoon the temperatures soared, and the farmers in the northern border had no way to prevent the mass die-off. "Yesterday, between 4pm and 5pm, we were hit by an intense heat wave. We tried all day to cool the birds, but we couldn’t."
Almost every coop in the small settlement was affected by the intense heat. Farmer Moshe Laviv reported that about 700 birds in his coop have died. "I have water in the coop and fans that cool the birds. The workers tried to lower the temperatures and did everything possible to cool them, but we couldn't save them," he said despairingly.
"This is an extremely rare event," he added. "The damage is massive, and it sets us back several years. You raise the chick, feed it, care for it, hoping for profits and eggs. This event has devastated my flock. I wish we could cover the sun to fend off this intense heat, but we did all we could."
"Over 10,000 chickens also died here in Dovev," said Sharon Amiri, a poultry farmer from the community on the Lebanese border. He stood next to his coop, attempting to cool it by spraying water on the roof, but to no avail. Inside, it was like an oven. "Just here, over 300 birds have died already. I've never experienced such an extreme heat wave; it's something we just can't cope with," he added.
The heat wave is expected to continue throughout Monday, and it is believed the bird mortality will increase.
The Insurance Fund for Natural Risks in Agriculture (known by its Hebrew acronym, KANAT) reached out to poultry farmers Thursday morning, asking them to report damages to their coops. The farmers were advised in a message “to store the dead birds in a cool place (like an egg refrigeration room) until an appraiser arrives to document and count the dead birds, and only then dispose of them in a concentrated manner."
KANAT further updated that "the heat events in the coming two days are expected to continue and may even intensify, so it's essential to use all available cooling methods."
This is a severe blow to the community of Margaliot, where most residents make a living from poultry. In December 2021, hundreds of thousands of birds were culled after being infected with the bird flu virus.
"We tried to recover after all our birds were culled due to the flu, and our situation here just keeps deteriorating," adds Sarmili. "We feel like everything is closing in on us. Making a living is incredibly challenging, [Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan] Nasrallah looms over us, constantly expanding his forces and the threat grows. We feel lost."
Yossi Adoni, the representative of poultry farmers in the Chicken Council and a resident of the community Zar'it, said, "The heat was extremely intense and unusual. If this damage continues, the state will have to declare it a natural disaster."
He expressed, "A farmer who loses all his birds takes a severe financial blow and can't always bounce back from such a blow. The state needs to stand by them and ensure they receive the necessary insurance to rescue them."
Temperatures dropped slightly on Monday but will remain extremely high across the country. Throughout the day, there may be local showers in the east, with the possibility of thunder and lightning.
Temperatures will continue falling on Tuesday and Wednesday with local showers in the east.
EXTREME HEATWAVE HITS ISRAEL ONCE AGAIN
(ILTV)