Statewide Iowa — The State Agriculture Department announced Thursday that bird flu restrictions have been lifted for three commercial poultry sites in Franklin, Hamilton, and Humboldt County.
The Iowa Turkey Federation’s Gretta Irwin says this is the start of a recovery.
Bird flu restrictions had kept poultry and poultry products from being moved in or out of a farm with an outbreak of avian flu. Farmers at those sites will now be able to bring turkeys and chickens back to their barns and get back to production. Irwin says the process has been faster than recovery from bird flu seven years ago.
Iowa Ag Secretary Mike Naig says this is a key step.
Naig says the three sites completed several tasks to get their restrictions lifted.
There were 19 confirmed outbreaks across the state. Naig says the thought early on the spread of the bird flu was caused by migrating birds.
The site in Franklin County raises young chickens, the one in Humboldt County raises breeding chickens, and commercial turkeys are raised at the site in Hamilton County where the restrictions were lifted. More than 13 million birds in Iowa have died from the latest round of virus or have been killed to stop its spread.
