Iowa’s aggressive bird flu testing to inform state research report

JOHNSTON — The state’s aggressive testing for bird flu, particularly in infected Northwest Iowa dairy cattle herds, will inform a state research report on the virus, Iowa Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig said Friday.

Naig said he hopes the information found in that report will help state and federal officials better manage future outbreaks.

Naig discussed the latest bird flu outbreak and its impact, as well as other agricultural issues in Iowa, for his appearance on this weekend’s episode of “Iowa Press” at Iowa PBS studios.

While the bird flu historically has devastated chicken and turkey flocks, the virus has made the leap to mammals. In Iowa, the virus is spreading among dairy cattle and bird flu has been detected in 13 livestock herds, according to federal tracking data.

Any time the bird flu is detected and confirmed in Iowa, all dairy herds within a 20-kilometer radius around the infected farm are required to test for the virus, according to new state regulations enacted by Naig and the state ag department. The approach is more aggressive than in other states where the virus has been detected.

Naig said because Iowa has many dairy, beef, turkey and poultry farms, the state needed to take a holistic approach to testing. He said those test results will help inform a state report that will publish later this summer.

“But if we’re going to experience the pain and know that we have those positive sites, well then we better understand what is happening,” Naig said during recording of “Iowa Press.”

“I think what we’re going to get when we get to the end of this, maybe in weeks or even months, is that we’re going to actually have specific strategies then that farmers can use to better protect their operations. But if you’re not testing, you don’t know where it is, you can’t do that kind of work.”

Naig discussed multiple other topics during his appearance.

Natural disaster damage

In addition to another bird flu outbreak, Iowa farmers in many areas are dealing with devastation caused by tornadoes or severe flooding.

Naig said he has visited farms in Shelby County that were damaged by tornadoes. He said it is too soon to know the total impact of flood damage on Iowa’s crops.

“Just devastated farms, everything gone, people coming up out of basements and nothing is there,” Naig said of the tornado damage. As for the flood damage, “Hard to say at this point. We just don’t know. We can’t really know the total extent of that until you really get out to fall and get a combine through the field. But through Northwest Iowa, because of the excess moisture, we will absolutely see and are seeing crop damage.

“But farm places have been affected (by natural disasters). You lose your home, you lose your equipment, you lose your outbuildings, it dollars up very quickly.”

Plant closures

Naig said a “softening” in the agriculture economy has contributed to multiple plant closures and layoffs this year in Iowa.

A Tyson Foods plant in Perry closed in June, displacing roughly 1,300 workers; a Smithfield Foods plant in Altoona will close in August, displacing roughly 300 workers; and John Deere recently announced 345 layoffs at its Waterloo plant in September. Since September, Deere has laid off nearly 2,000 workers between its Waterloo and Quad Cities facilities, according to the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier.

Naig said crop prices are below the cost of production, which causes a chain reaction that hurts equipment manufacturers like Deere; and that inflation and shifting consumer demands have hurt food processors like Tyson and Smithfield.

“That creates softness in the industries that support and supply farmers, which creates softness in their suppliers, and the next thing you know you’re onto a situation where Deere is reporting softness in every category of what they look at,” Naig said. “And so some of this is just a natural outcome, economically, in terms of what is happening at the core, which is commodity prices and the cost of inputs and the cost of workforce. So I think it’s unfortunately a sign of the times.”

“Iowa Press” can be viewed at 7:30 p.m. Friday and noon Sunday on Iowa PBS, and any time online at iowapbs.org.

Comments: (515) 355-1300, erin.murphy@thegazette.com

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