Animal health officials investigating a bird flu strain that’s hit 10 turkey farms in southwestern in have added 156,000 chickens to the list of thousands of birds being euthanized due to the outbreak.
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The State Board of Animal Health says they are hopeful that at least eight of the 10 farms have a less deadly form of the virus.
According to the release, this is the first detection of a highly pathogenic avian flu virus in the United States since June past year, which led to the depopulation of almost 50 million birds and became the most expensive agricultural emergency in USA history.
Farmers also have strengthened cleaning and security practices in a bid to keep out the virus, with many requiring workers to change their shoes before entering barns and barring delivery trucks from getting too close to poultry houses.
The USDA pays farmers for the birds that must be euthanized, but not for any that died prior to the government’s arrival.
Despite this, the strain is believed to be more contagious than the one that caused mass havoc to the U.S. poultry industry in the summer of 2015. Workers are now trying to cull sick flocks within 24 hours of diagnoses, following a goal the agency set in the autumn.
Federal and state officials are hoping to contain the viral strain to the 10 IN farms by using quarantines, euthanizing entire stocks of poultry on those farms and aggressively testing nearby poultry farms and backyard flocks.
Limited genetic data from preliminary diagnostic tests last week showed this H7N8 virus originated from North America, while last year’s strains had roots in Europe and Asia, officials said.
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“I have been saying that bird flu would return, and it was a matter of “when” not “if”, said Agriculture Secretary Joe Bartenfelder in an MDA news release. It isn’t clear whether the mild winter weather played a role, either. “Heat-treated” products are excluded from the ban it added. If you would like to discuss another topic, look for a relevant article.
