Bird flu on 10 IN farms

Animal health officials investigating a bird flu outbreak in southwest in have ordered 156,000 chickens at one of 10 affected commercial poultry farms to be euthanized, raising the total number of birds to be killed above 400,000.

The first farm where H7N8 was found had a highly contagious form of the virus, Derrer said, but tests by USDA staff have shown eight of the other nine turkey farms have a “low pathogenic” form, meaning the birds are more likely to get sick but not die.

The strain discovered at a 60,000-bird flock in Dubois County is different from those that caused last year’s outbreak, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service said January 15 in a statement on its website. “Our vaccination policy is to only use it if we feel that it would be an important adjunct to our stamping out policy”, he says.

There’s also no indication why H7N8 surfaced during winter months, but officials have said bird flu – any strain of it – could resurface anytime.

“Birds from the affected flock have not and will not enter the food system”, Ted Seger, president of Farbest Farms Inc., said.

“We know very little about this particular virus because we haven’t seen it, but we want to take as many precautions as we can to prevent any human infections”, he said.

Mittal says it’s important that farmers be proactive in testing their birds, as it could help stop the spread from farm to farm.

Indiana’s poultry industry ranks fourth nationally in turkey production, first in duck production and third in eggs, and is a significant producer of broiler chickens.

This particular strain is more common in wild birds.

“I’m urging all poultry owners to be vigilant with biosecurity protocols in order to protect our valuable poultry industry”, Strain said. Everyone hopes this outbreak doesn’t turn into what happened in 2015. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the rapid response developed after last year’s outbreaks seems to have worked, but noted a team is in place to rapidly euthanize flocks and contain any spread. In the meantime, what do we need to know?