More Bird Flu Cases Confirmed in Indiana

“APHIS is working closely with the Indiana State Board of Animal Health on a joint incident response”.

The federal government sprang into action last week after confirmation that the virus had hit an IN turkey farm, alerting other states to the danger and putting workers who might have been exposed to the virus under surveillance. A USDA spokeswoman says the viral strain has not yet been found in wild birds, and that suggests it could have developed in wild birds that overwintered in southern Indiana.

The case of avian flu in IN doesn’t involve Tyson Foods, spokesman Gary Mickelson said in an e-mailed response. The first of the 10 farms saw a highly pathogenic form, which means infected birds were dying, while most of the other farms saw a low-pathogenic form that only made the birds sick.

According to the release, this is the first detection of a highly pathogenic avian flu virus in the United States since June past year, which led to the depopulation of almost 50 million birds and became the most expensive agricultural emergency in USA history. That strain was H5N2, and it killed some 50 million birds throughout the country, with losses to producers in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The results were confirmed January 15 by USDA.

Cold weather is still posing problems for crews using a suffocating foam to kill the birds, she said, adding that even though water was freezing in hoses, most of the birds have been killed using that foam.

While only one barn tested positive, some 60,000 birds will be eliminated from the farm site.

The affected flocks have been destroyed and testing in the area continues.

Officials hope the current outbreak has been contained and that there’s no wider impact. Nobody knows yet where it came from, and that information may be hard to come by; nobody knows where last year’s outbreak came from, either.

Pitt reported from Des Moines, Iowa.