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Iowa reports four ‘probable’ avian flu cases-UPDATED

 

 

eggsEditor’s note:  Since this story was first posted, the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship has reported another “probable” case of avian flu in a 3.8 million bird egg laying operation in Sioux County. That brings the total number of infected layers in Iowa to approximately 9.5 million, which represents about one-sixth of the egg-laying hens in the state.

The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship is responding to what it calls “four probable cases” of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in commercial poultry farms in Osceola, O’Brien and Sioux Counties in Northwest Iowa.

The new cases involve a pullet farm in Osceola County with an estimated 250-thousand birds; a commercial laying operation in Sioux County with an estimated 1.7 million birds; and two commercial laying operations in O’Brien County, one with an estimated 240-thousand birds and the other with an estimated 98-thousand birds.

The state is awaiting confirmation on those new cases from the APHIS National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames.

These four new cases would join three confirmed cases of the disease in Iowa. State officials have quarantined the premises and if the initial test are confirmed, all birds on the property will be humanely euthanized to prevent the spread of the disease.

The Center for Disease Control and Iowa Department of Public Health consider the risk to people from these HPAI H5 infections in wild birds, backyard flocks and commercial poultry, to be low.  No human infections with the virus have ever been detected there is no food safety risk for consumers.

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