The United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has confirmed the presence of highly pathogenic H7N8 avian influenza (HPAI) in a commercial turkey flock in Dubois County, in southcentral Indiana.
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On a call with reporters Friday afternoon, T.J. Meyers, associate deputy administrator of APHIS Veterinary Services, said in more than 25,000 samples of wild bird surveillance collected since July, there have been “a few” detections of low pathogenic H7 strains of the virus, “but not all “H7N8s are the same”. The H7N8 virus has not yet been found in wild birds, suggesting that the virus could have developed in wild birds that spent the winter in southern Indiana, USDA spokeswoman Andrea McNally said Friday.
Indiana Board of Animal Health spokeswoman Denise Derrer said the farm has about 60,000 turkeys and the flock is being euthanized to prevent the disease from spreading.
Last year’s outbreak resulted in the culling of about 49 million birds in 21 states, including about 10 percent of the nation’s egg-laying hens.
APHIS is assisting IN officials with the outbreak response, and state officials have quarantined the affected farm.
“We may know more once the remaining work on virus sequencing is completed, likely sometime next week”, Andrea McNally said.
No cases of avian flu were confirmed in Ohio. This is a different strain of HPAI than the strains that caused the 2015 outbreak.
Pence said the state was “taking all precautions to contain the situation and minimize the effects to Indiana’s robust poultry industry”.
State agriculture officials are keeping a close eye on a confirmed case of avian flu in southern in, weeks after OH lifted a state ban on poultry displays at fairs, auctions and other events.
In Iowa and Minnesota, where the H5N2 virus hit hardest, the poultry farms are restocking, especially in Iowa. Egg prices have settled back to about $1.11 for a dozen in the Midwest, according to Urner Barry, a commodity tracking firm.
The United States has the strongest AI surveillance program in the world, and USDA is working with its partners to actively look for the disease in commercial poultry operations, live bird markets and in migratory wild bird populations.
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McMillian said anyone involved with the poultry industry should review health and safety measures.
