Northwest Iowa — Before adjourning for the year, Iowa legislators voted to give the state ag department $100-thousand to prepare for disease outbreaks, like the bird flu that decimated several northwest Iowa pultry operations in 2015.
Iowa Ag Secretary Bill Northey says the governor could still reject the proposal, so the “help wanted” sign isn’t up quite yet.
Last year, a year after the state’s poultry industry was hit hard by the bird flu, Northey asked legislators for $500-thousand to establish a “foreign animal disease” program in his agency. That request wasn’t granted last year, but Northey asked again this year.
Northey says farm commodity groups have expressed “some interest” in contributing funds, too, to create a public-private partnership for this project.
Northey is interested in hiring an “animal health professional” for the new unit. That could be a veterinarian or someone already working in the Iowa Department of Agriculture who has “animal disease planning experience.” Federal officials define “foreign animal diseases” as serious illnesses that are not generally present in the U.S., but can be transmitted among U.S. livestock and poultry and have “significant health or economic impact.” Diseases commonly called “bird flu” and “mad cow disease” are on the list.
