Iowa farmers to Congress: Speed up bird flu response

DES MOINES - Iowa egg and turkey producers testified to Congress on Tuesday that the federal government should have been more efficient in its response to the avian influenza that decimated flocks across the state this spring.

Jim Dean, United Egg Producers chairman, and Brad Moline, on behalf of the National Turkey Federation, told federal lawmakers they believe miscommunication and extraneous paperwork slowed the process of destroying infected flocks, which may have helped the disease's rapid spread.

'All (of those issues) contributed to delayed depopulation, which, quite frankly, was one of the major problems and major causes, I believe, in spreading this disease and making the outbreak as bad as it was,” Moline told Iowa reporters in a conference call after the hearing, which included Iowa's two U.S. Senators, Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst.

The avian influenza affected 77 sites and more than 31 million birds in Iowa, including almost 25 million egg-laying hens and more than a million turkeys.

Infected flocks must be completely destroyed, after which the farm must be decontaminated.

The federal Department of Agriculture was the lead agency on the response, with assistance from state and local authorities and agencies. More than 2,300 USDA employees and contractors worked on the response in Iowa, according to the state.

Moline and Dean said miscommunication or a lack of communication, contractors who were not properly qualified to oversee depopulation and cleanup, burdensome paperwork and other issues caused a prolonged cleanup effort.

'I think this was such a devastating disease for everybody that a lot of people were caught off-guard and the systems weren't in place to deal with the extreme volume of cases that were happening so quickly,” Dean said. 'This was an unprecedented disaster in the United States.”

The state Department of Agriculture said no new cases have been detected since June 16, and all infected flocks have been destroyed. Disinfection continues at many facilities.

Moline said his facility in Manson, near Fort Dodge, has tested clean and could be repopulated by the end of the month.

Dean said it will take longer for egg producers. He said his facility in Clarion will not start repopulating until this winter, and it will be another year before it is fully populated.

'It's such a devastating disease. We've got to make sure that this never occurs in another part of the United States again,” Dean said. 'So I hope that we learned from the mistakes that maybe have been made in the past, and we can move forward to help (see) that this disease never develops in this magnitude again.”

Moline and Dean said by airing their concerns before Congress and in separate meetings with the USDA, they believe government officials will be better prepared to handle potential future outbreaks. Some producers and experts fear that could happen this fall or next spring with the movement of migratory birds.

'Yes, we're still very concerned that this could happen again. The last thing we want is this happening again. Frankly, many producers can survive this once - they cannot survive it a second time,” Moline said. 'Yes, I'm very concerned. But we are moving in the right direction.”

On the relief front, Grassley and Ernst said they were open to a discussion of a federal disaster insurance program for bird livestock producers that would be similar to existing programs for other livestock producers and crop farmers.

Producers are eligible for some compensation for birds that are destroyed after the virus is confirmed. They are not compensated for birds that died before the virus is confirmed.

'I was kind of surprised that we didn't talk more about that in (Tuesday's) hearing, but it's a thing that is being talked about, more as a matter of equity for poultry and turkeys along the lines of what we have for grain or what we have for other animals in the past when there's been devastation,” Grassley said. 'But we haven't gone very far down that road yet. …

'It's a matter of making sure that we treat all segments of agriculture the same when it comes to public policy.”