Emergency Bird Flu Plan: Indiana Turkey Farm Infected With New Strain

Indiana Department of Environmental Management Commissioner Carol Comer said the disposal of the hundreds of thousands of birds is a logistical challenge, “The infected birds are being composted on the farm”. That strain led to the deaths of 48 million birds, mostly chickens and turkeys.

Federal and state officials are hoping to contain the viral strain to the 10 IN farms by using quarantines, euthanizing entire stocks of poultry on those farms and aggressively testing nearby poultry farms and backyard flocks.

A worker is sprayed as part of the decontamination process Sunday at a farm in Dubois, Ind. The number of birds ordered euthanized has exceeded 400,000. Of the birds, about 62 percent are turkeys while the rest are chickens that were not infected, but were considered to be in “dangerous contact” with an infected turkey flock.

Derrer says poultry is a very important industry for Indiana’s agriculture sector, saying the state is fourth in the nation for turkey production, and even higher in areas including ducks and eggs. Officials have never dealt with this strain before, and wild birds are thought to spread the disease to farms through feces dropped from the air, making infections hard to prevent.

After the first H5N8-affected farm was reported on Jan 15, the Indiana Board of Animal Health (IBAH) announced nine additional H7 detections on Jan 16 and said initial tests indicated highly pathogenic H7N8, a subtype that hasn’t been detected before in the United States, and that further tests were under way. 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”. Symptoms include respiratory problems and pink eye, but can be treated with antiviral medication. Officials try to kill infected birds within 24 hours of diagnosis. “Properly cooked eggs and poultry are safe to eat”. All affected barns will then undergo a thorough cleaning and disinfection before farmers can restock.