One year later, Iowa looks to limit future bird flu outbreaks

With the approach Thursday of the anniversary of the state's bird flu outbreak, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey outlined steps taken by poultry farmers and government agencies to better prepare for another potential outbreak.

'Poultry farmers have made significant investments to improve biosecurity to prevent the disease from getting on their farm and are monitoring their birds closely so we catch the disease early should it appear,” Northey said Tuesday.

Northey called it a 'good sign” that with the exception of one January case in Indiana, the Upper Midwest has been free of the costly disease so far this year.

'Last year it had popped up in some of our neighboring states” before Iowa recorded its first case April 14 in a Buena Vista County commercial flock of turkeys, Northey said.

April, he said, likely would be the highest risk period for a recurrence of the disease that last year resulted in the deaths of more than 31 million Iowa laying hens and turkeys and cost producers more than $1 billion.

To encourage tighter disease control, Northey said all poultry farms are required to have a biosecurity plan to qualify for U.S. Department of Agriculture indemnification, which pays farmers for poultry killed to prevent spread of the disease.

Recommended measures include establishing a line of separation to isolate poultry from potential sources of infection and following biosecurity protocols for any person or materials that cross the line.

In addition, Northey said federal and state governments have updated their disease response plans and are prepared to implement them.

Those plans, he said, call for depopulating infected flocks within 24 hours to help control the disease and limit its spread.

'Everyone understands that we need to respond more quickly to eliminate the disease on the farm, which reduces the chance it can move and infect more birds,” he said.

Iowa agencies also have provided guidance for poultry producers to prepare and plan for bird flu.

The USDA has described the 2015 outbreak - with 223 detections affecting 48 million birds in 21 state - as the largest animal health emergency in U.S. history.

In Iowa, the hardest-hit state, 31.5 million chickens and turkeys were affected on 77 premises in 18 counties.