Branstad declares bird flu emergency

DES MOINES - With a quarter of Iowa's laying hens doomed from bird flu, Gov. Terry Branstad declared a state of emergency Friday that activates a coordinated response and increases biosecurity measures to check the infectious disease in the nation's leading egg-producing state.

Iowa now becomes the third state to declare an emergency because of the outbreak, which either has led or will lead to the extermination of some 21 million chickens and turkeys nationwide. Minnesota and Wisconsin declared states of emergency last month.

In Iowa alone. roughly 17 million chickens and turkeys face doom since outbreaks were reported last month.

'While the avian influenza outbreak does not pose a risk to humans, we are taking the matter very seriously and believe declaring a state of emergency is the best way to make all resources available,” Branstad said.

The governor, who held a midafternoon Statehouse news conference with Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey and Iowa Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management Director Mark Schouten, said 21 sites spanning 10 northwestern Iowa counties as of Friday had cases of 'presumed positives or confirmed positives” of the highly contagious H5N2 bird flu.

The counties are Buena Vista, Cherokee, Clay, Kossuth, Madison, O'Brien, Osceola, Pocahontas, Sac and Sioux.

Branstad said the declaration initiates Iowa's emergency response operations center in Johnston and brings to bear a coordinated, ongoing effort of state, federal and local agencies to stop an outbreak that 'is of a magnitude much greater than anything” to hit Iowa's poultry sector during his six terms as governor - or for that matter, in his lifetime.

'Iowa's poultry farms are an important part of our state's agriculture industry,” Northey said. 'This disease is having a far-reaching impact and, unfortunately, it has continued to spread. We have seen tremendous support and coordination from state, federal and local partners and this emergency declaration will allow the state to continue to respond aggressively to this disease outbreak.”

The declaration expands efforts of the state's emergency response plan and authorizes state entities access to additional resources, supplies and equipment to track and contain the influenza outbreak. It also allows for the removal and disposal of infected birds on either public or private lands and lifts weight restrictions on trucks hauling culled flocks, among other things.

In addition, the action allows law enforcement agencies to set up checkpoints and road blocks anywhere in the state, including areas outside of quarantined farms, 'in order to stop the spread of this contagious disease,” according to the governor's proclamation.

Branstad and Northey declined to put an estimate on the economic impact of the outbreak, and they were uncertain what the cost to government might be to help contain the spread, dispose of infected birds and take other steps.

The declaration runs through May 31 unless Branstad ends it earlier or extends it.

Officials believe the disease is spread to poultry farms by migrating birds. To try to contain the outbreak, entire flocks where infected birds are discovered are euthanized. The U.S. Department of Agriculture pays the affected producers the cost of lost birds and disinfection of facilities, Northey has said. 'but not for any lost income going forward.”

Since the bird flu outbreak was discovered in this country in December, dozens of nations have imposed total or partial bans on U.S. poultry and poultry imports.

Reuters contributed to this report.