Iowa bans bird shows as avian flu outbreaks persist

Rooster at fair
Rooster at fair

Courtney "Coco" Mault / Flickr cc

Iowa state officials today announced a ban on live-bird shows and some sales for the rest of this year in an effort to stop the spread of avian flu, and followed up by reporting another chicken outbreak, which followed two turkey outbreaks announced yesterday.

Meanwhile, a Reuters story today said that on the basis of a reporter's experience, recommended biosecurity measures were not being enforced at several farms in northwestern Iowa, where the state's outbreaks are concentrated.

Bird bazaars banned

The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) announced an order to cancel all live-bird exhibitions at county fairs, the Iowa State Fair, and other gatherings. The department also banned the sale of birds at livestock auction markets, swap meets, and exotic sales, effective immediately.

"We are asking producers and bird owners to increase their biosecurity measures and we feel this is a needed step to further minimize the risk of spreading the virus," Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey said in the IDALS statement. "The scale of this outbreak has been unprecedented, so we think it is important we take every possible step to limit the chance that this disease will spread any further."

Iowa, the nation's top egg producer, has had 63 avian flu outbreaks affecting more than 25 million birds.

IDALS officials decided on the ban after consulting with leaders of the Iowa State Fair and Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. Also, the Iowa Turkey Federation and Iowa Poultry Association both recommended cancellation of bird exhibitions this year because of the avian flu crisis, the agency said. Last week Minnesota announced a similar ban on bird shows and sales.

Three more outbreaks

The latest Iowa outbreaks involve a layer-chicken farm in Buena Vista County and one turkey farm apiece in Calhoun and Sac counties, according to the IDALS. Birds at all three sites tested positive for an H5 virus, and confirmation of H5N2 is awaited. Estimates of the flock sizes for the three farms were not yet available.

The turkey outbreaks were announced yesterday. They marked the first H5 outbreak in Calhoun County and the sixth event in Sac. The two counties are neighbors in west-central Iowa.

The chicken farm outbreak announced today is the 17th avian flu event in Buena Vista County, which lies just north of Sac County. The event raises Iowa's outbreak count to 63.

Lax biosecurity reported

The Reuters story said a reporter checked out biosecurity efforts at several Iowa farms and found them lacking in some cases.

"In visits to six affected sites in Iowa last week, a Reuters reporter found procedures at three in Sioux County did not comply with USDA [US Department of Agriculture] or state protocols for restricting access to infected sites, providing protective gear to workers and cleaning the wheels of vehicles leaving the sites," the story said.

It said that at a Center Fresh Group farm near Sioux Center, which housed about 4.9 million hens, a worker who was cleaning the tires of vehicles leaving the site waved a reporter's car into the site without inspection. And on a public road running alongside the facility, passenger cars drove by unstaffed barricades at a site meant to control access.

Biosecurity lapses were also observed at another Center Fresh facility near the town of Ireton and at an infected farm owned by Fedders Poultry near Orange City, the story said.

Burke Healey, DVM, the USDA's national coordinator for the avian flu response, told Reuters he was concerned about the lapses as described by Reuters. He said gaps in biosecurity can violate agreements signed by farm owners, adding, "If they're allowing you to drive in and out of that property unrestricted, then that's going against what we've requested of them and what they've agreed to do for us."

Minnesota outbreaks slowing

In other developments, signs of a slowdown in Minnesota H5N2 outbreaks continued today.

"Cases have definitely slowed in Minnesota," said Bethany Hahn, spokeswoman for the Minnesota Board of Animal Health. "Today marks day number 6 with no new infections. We're very hopeful that this trend continues."

The state has had 88 outbreaks in 21 counties, the vast majority of them on turkey farms, with close to 8 million birds lost.

Hahn said the state's H5N2 response continues to involve scores of people. "Right now there are 154 people dedicated to this response in Minnesota," she reported, including 88 state employees, 54 USDA employees, and 12 contract workers.

On the national scale, the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service says the count of avian flu detections reached 176 as of yesterday, with 39.1 million birds lost to the disease or to the resulting preventive culling.

See also:

May 21 IDALS statement on banning bird exhibits

May 21 IDALS statement on layer chicken outbreak

May 20 IDALS statement on two outbreaks

May 21 Reuters story

USDA list of outbreaks

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