The company behind the commercial turkey farm in southern in where bird flu was found says it is working closely with state and federal officials.
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The 2015 outbreak led to the killing of 7.5 million turkeys and 42.1 million egg-layer and pullet chickens.
Dave Halvorson, DVM, an avian health expert who is retired from the University of Minnesota, told CIDRAP News that so far there’s no news on whether the genetic material from the H7N8 virus detected on the farm is from Eurasian or North American lineages.
According to the Indiana Department of Health’s website, the commercial turkey flock is in Dubois County, and the Avian Influenza was confirmed positive on Thursday.
Last year’s H5N2 avian flu outbreak was considered the worst animal disease outbreak in USA history, leading to the death of more than 48 million birds on 223 operations in nine states, according to USDA.
Its plan includes promoting improved biosecurity practices on farms, improving surveillance of wild birds (which have spread the virus in the past) and promoting rapid detection of the illness in domestic poultry before depopulating affected flocks within 24 hours.
“They want to make sure it is not being spread”, she said.
There are no known cases of bird flu infection in humans, the USDA said, adding that proper handling and cooking of poultry and eggs will kill bacteria and viruses like the bird flu.
The farms, about 70 miles from Louisville, Kentucky, are within a quarantine area set up around the first farm and that area has been expanded to four neighboring IN counties – Martin, Orange, Crawford and Daviess, the Associated Press reported. This is a different strain of HPAI than the strains that caused the 2015 outbreak. Federal and state authorities are monitoring and testing the nearby area, it said. Not all the 250,000 had yet been killed, said Derrer, though she didn’t have specific figures.
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“Hopefully as we respond quickly to this virus we can get it contained and hopefully not see an extensive outbreak like we did past year”, said T.J. Myers, a veterinary services administrator with the USDA.
