Avian flu taking big toll in Iowa; virus found in Minnesota hawk

Friday, May 1, 2015
By Paul Martin

Robert Roos
CIDRAP News
Apr 30, 2015

Nine more H5 avian influenza outbreaks that were reported on Iowa poultry farms in the past 2 days, combined with previous outbreaks, will mean the loss of about a quarter of the state’s 60 million layer hens, state officials said today.

In addition, Minnesota officials today announced three more turkey-farm outbreaks and reported finding the virus in a dead hawk, the first known wild-bird infection in the state that has by far the most poultry outbreaks.

Six outbreaks in one Iowa county
The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) reported four outbreaks late yesterday and added five more today. Six of them are in Buena Vista County in the northwestern part of the state.

Initial testing pointed to a highly pathogenic (HP) H5 virus, but there was little doubt that it would be confirmed as H5N2. At an afternoon press conference, Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey said birds on all the farms are showing clinical signs, “so we highly suspect they’ll come back with N2” confirmed.

One of the Buena Vista County outbreaks reported today is on a farm with 5.5 million layer hens, the IDA reported. The virus also hit two Buena Vista turkey farms, with bird counts not yet available; a Sioux County farm with 84,000 layer hens; and a Clay County layer operation, with no bird count available yet.

The four outbreaks reported yesterday included three on Buena Vista County farms: one with 50,000 turkeys, one with an unknown number of turkeys, and one with 63,000 layers. Also hit was a farm with 19,000 breeder chickens in Kossuth County, in north-central Iowa.

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