Avian Flu Sweeps Through Poultry Farms in Minnesota and Indiana

Avian Flu Sweeps Through Poultry Farms in Minnesota and Indiana

Earlier this year, I noted that the production of eggs in the US plummeted in April as millions of hens were killed during one of the worst-ever outbreaks of avian influenza.

Now reports indicate that avian flu (i.e., “bird flu”) has returned to the Midwest earlier than authorities expected after several months, with the highly pathogenic disease detected in two commercial turkey flocks in western Minnesota and a hobby flock in Indiana.

The disease was detected after a farm in Meeker County reported an increase in mortality last weekend, the Minnesota Board of Animal Health said. The flock was euthanized to stop the spread. The board later reported that a second flock in the county tested positive Tuesday evening.

They were the first detections of avian influenza in Minnesota since May 31, when a backyard flock was struck in Becker County. Indiana’s case was its first since a backyard flock there tested positive June 8, which had been the last detection in the Midwest before this week.

However, there have been several detections in western states in July and August, including California, where a half-dozen commercial farms have had to kill more than 425,000 chickens and turkeys since last week. There have also been cases in Washington, Oregon and Utah, plus a few in some eastern states.

“While the timing of this detection is a bit sooner than we anticipated, we have been preparing for a resurgence of the avian influenza we dealt with this spring,” said Dr. Shauna Voss, the board’s senior veterinarian. “HPAI is here and biosecurity is the first line of defense to protect your birds.”

Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, rare wild birds are among many species hit by an “unprecedented” avian flu outbreak across the Atlantic.

Wild birds from threatened roseate terns, puffins and gannets to hen harriers are being hit by an “unprecedented” avian flu outbreak, officials have said.

Bird flu has been found at scores of poultry farms and commercial premises across the UK in the past year, while the disease has also ripped through breeding colonies of seabirds, killing thousands in some sites.

The Environment Department (Defra) and Welsh Government have set out new guidance to land managers, the public and conservation groups to curb the impact of bird flu in wild birds, while protecting health and the countryside.

The avian flu in question, H5N1, first emerged in poultry in China’s Guangdong province in 1996 and since then has caused several significant outbreaks worldwide. It has evolved to be more transmissible among many bird species.

It has evolved to infect waterfowl species without causing significant harm, allowing the birds to spread the virus far and wide. In the current outbreak, waterbirds are thought to have carried the virus to Canada from Europe and then down the eastern seaboard. Bald eagles, owls, and other predators died after eating infected waterbirds.

In February, H5N1 reached the Mississippi flyway, where snow geese and other species migrate to northern Canada. Along the way it infected poultry operations, forcing farmers to cull 40 million chickens and turkeys. Later in the spring, the virus slowly moved westward.

By now, H5N1 has been detected in more than 2000 wild birds in the United States, compared with just 99 during the 2015 outbreak; biologists suspect the virus is much more transmissible than its predecessors. “It has just exploded in the breadth of species that it’s observed in,” says Wendy Puryear, a wildlife virologist at Tufts University.

….[M]any researchers say the virus is already entrenched in some parts of the United States. If those areas overlap major poultry farming areas, the consequences could be serious. Farmers could face a constant risk of major losses, and Richards says they would need to maintain or tighten biosecurity measures—meticulously cleaning boots and equipment, for example.

Much remains to be learned. In wild birds, for example, just how H5N1 moves from one individual to another and between species is still a mystery, says Tufts wildlife virologist Kaitlin Sawatzki. “It’s going to be a very complicated story,” she says. “It’s hard to predict, and we’re nervous.”

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