US farm and health officials are racing to assess the threat that a type of bird flu never before seen in the country poses to humans and poultry, employing emergency plans drawn up in the wake of a devastating outbreak in birds past year.
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Indiana State Board of Animal Health spokeswoman Denise Derrer says the H7N8 virus has not been found in any other flocks since Saturday.
More than 245,000 turkeys in Southwestern Indiana are slated to be killed in an effort to prevent the spread of the virus, but the weather is creating some problems. Water is usually used to drown the birds; but with wind chills in the single digits, it has been freezing.
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Comer said state and federal officials are working nearly around the clock to clean up and contain the situation. More than a million birds in Le Sueur and Nicollet counties were put down after farms there were affected by the virus.
All of the birds in flocks that officials confirmed had infected birds must be euthanized under USDA protocols dictated by worldwide trade treaties.
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.
A day later, however, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) said eight of those nine additional H7 detections were low-pathogenic H7N8 and that tests were ongoing on the ninth flock. She told HAT that non-infected birds are being placed in landfills, “Birds that were not infected, but were depopulated as a precaution, can be moved off the farm and be placed in landfills”.
Past animal viruses usually spread in spring, and it’s unclear why the H7N8 strain has taken hold in January.
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Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the IN outbreak has been a test of whether officials are ready for future bird flu outbreaks and shows the need to stay on guard year-round.
