Fourth Case of Bird Flu Found in Nebraska | New County Involved
NBCNeb.com
May 28, 2015
LINCOLN, Neb. — The Nebraska Department of Agriculture (NDA) in conjunction with the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has confirmed preliminary testing shows the presence of a fourth case of highly pathogenic H5N2 avian influenza (HPAI) in Nebraska. This case has been found at a farm in Knox County.
The Knox County case is a flock of 3 million hens. The farm is owned by the same operator as the three previously-announced Nebraska cases in Dixon County. Those three cases involve 3.5 million laying hens and a flock of 500,000 pullets (young hens), bringing the total impacted birds to date in Nebraska to 7 million. The location in Knox County is approximately 50 miles from the three Dixon County locations.
The Department quarantined the Knox County facility this morning following a preliminary positive test for the disease; the test is expected to be confirmed tomorrow at a federal laboratory. As with the three previous cases, a perimeter has been established around the Knox County facility, and the birds will be depopulated. Under the USDA protocol, NDA will visit all locations that have poultry within a 6.2 mile radius of the Knox County site to conduct testing.
Ibach said a response team has already been pulled together and is in Knox County to address the HPAI finding, including federal, state and local officials.
“I cannot stress enough the importance for all Nebraska poultry facility operators to ensure they maintain the strictest of biosecurity measures,” Nebraska Agriculture Director Greg Ibach said. “That means strictly limiting the traffic, both humans and vehicles, into and out of facilities in an effort to avoid any cross-contamination.”
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