Iowa’s second case of bird flu confirmed

The state's second case of highly pathogenic H5N2 avian influenza has been confirmed, the Iowa Agriculture Department said Monday.

This case, at a commercial laying facility in northwest Iowa's Osceola County, will entail the euthanization of 5.3 million hens.

Officials quarantined the facility and birds on the property will be humanely killed and disposed of to prevent spread of the disease.

Though euthanization seems extreme, it is the most effective way to contain the disease, said Kyoungjin Yoon, a professor of veterinary diagnostics at Iowa State University.

The disease, he said, is transmitted to domestic poultry by wild birds, primarily migrating waterfowl, which do not suffer ill effects. The disease will likely abate now that the spring migration is virtually complete, though it may flare again in the fall, he said.

'We certainly hope that is true,” said Randy Olson, executive director of the Iowa Poultry Association and the Iowa Egg Council.

In Iowa, the nation's leading egg producing state by far, 'this is an alarming finding. We have a lot to lose,” Olson said.

He emphasized that avian flu entails no food safety or human health issues.

No human infection with the virus has ever been detected, and the risk to people is considered low by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Iowa Department of Public Health.

Iowa's first case of the disease was confirmed last week in a flock of 27,000 turkeys in northwest Iowa's Buena Vista County.

Almost all of about 35 recent cases in the Midwest - primarily in Minnesota, Wisconsin and North and South Dakota - have affected turkeys.