Since the beginning of March, highly pathogenic avian influenza has claimed over 350,000 birds in Indiana.
“We’re asking all of our producer partners, whether it’s layers or broilers or turkey or dairy or any other adjacent production system, please be vigilant,” says Dudley Hoskins, Under Secretary of Agriculture for Marketing and Regulatory Programs. “We need sound biosecurity practices. It’s not just what’s happening on that one facility, there’s risk of lateral transmissions.”
Hoskins says the spring migratory season brings with it the renewed threat of HPAI, or bird flu.
The H5N1 strain of avian influenza is present in wild birds worldwide and is causing outbreaks in U.S. domestic birds and dairy cattle, though Indiana has not had a confirmed case of HPAI in dairy cattle as of yet. Hoskins asks farmers to lean on USDA’s APHIS experts for guidance and help in preventing spread.
“We have a number of different tools, wildlife biosecurity assessments, different audits we can help them with. Some of those are voluntary. We have different resources available to producers if they want to mitigate or address some of the biosecurity vulnerabilities. So please go to the APHIS website, look up those resources, tell us what we can do to be helpful to you, but biosecurity is paramount.”
Denise Derrer-Spears with the Indiana State Board of Animal Health says, “The impact of this virus on each, individually affected farm can be devastating; however, poultry production in Indiana remains strong,”
Indiana is a national leader in poultry production, ranking first in duck production, third in eggs, third in turkey production, and being a significant producer of broilers.
Avian influenza does not present a food safety risk, cooked poultry and eggs and pasteurized dairy products are safe to eat.
Over 10 million Indiana birds have been depopulated since February 2022 due to bird flu. Going back to 2022, this is now the largest animal health emergency in the history of the United States.
HAT intern Sophia Shannon contributed to this article.
