Northwest Iowa — Northwest Iowa poultry producers remain vigilant in the wake of the most recent avian influenza outbreak in the country. Just over a week ago a wild duck in Montana was diagnosed with the illness. Now more than 73-thousand chickens have been destroyed since the weekend outbreak of the highly-pathogenic avian flu at a Tennessee farm. Thirty other farms in the immediate vicinity of the Tennessee facility are now quarantined, as well.
Iowa Poultry and Egg Association Executive Director Kevin Stiles says the Tennessee outbreak is a worry here, after producers in this area dealt with a major outbreak two years ago.
Another bird flu outbreak is reported in a Wisconsin turkey farm, but it is NOT the highly-pathogenic variety. Stiles says poultry producers all across the state of Iowa tightened biosecurity following the epidemic here two years ago and are just now recovering lost ground.
Stiles says the USDA and Tennessee agriculture department officials have responded well to the recent outbreak.
Tennessee officials have declined to name the breeder and would only say the farm is in the state’s Lincoln County, west of Chattanooga. During the 2015 bird flu outbreak, cases were confirmed at 77 Iowa poultry operations in 18 counties, including some here in northwest Iowa. That outbreak resulted in the destruction of more than 31-million birds and an economic loss of $1.2-billion dollars.
