USDA says heat stress can be used to kill poultry in bird flu outbreak

Agriculture officials seeking to control deadly bird flu have approved a method of killing potentially infected poultry that entails sealing barns shut, turning up the heat and shutting off ventilation systems, an option condemned by animal rights groups as cruel.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, in an updated plan to combat future outbreaks, said Friday it would consider the method if there were no other ways to kill flocks within 24 hours of bird flu infections being detected.

The agency wants to cull infected flocks within a day to prevent the virus from spreading. Nearly 50 million chickens and turkeys, the majority of them in Iowa, died from bird flu or were culled earlier this year in the country's worst animal disease outbreak.

Shutting down ventilation systems in poultry houses 'essentially bakes the birds to death,” the Humane Society of the United States said.

'We shouldn't compound the problems for birds by subjecting them to a particularly miserable and protracted means of euthanasia,” said Michael Blackwell, the Humane Society's chief veterinary officer.

The USDA said the method was a 'necessary alternative” because of the need to quickly control the virus.

The agency said its preferred choices for culling infected poultry will be suffocating them with foam or in chambers filled with carbon dioxide, methods widely used last spring.

More than two months have passed since the last infection. However, officials are preparing for a potential resurgence this fall when wild waterfowl, which can carry the virus, migrate south.

Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey, who worked with federal officials during the spring outbreak, said the plan emphasizes the need to respond even more quickly to try and stop the disease.

The plan reinforces efforts to increase surveillance for the disease and strengthen biosecurity on farms, he said.

It also outlines plans for the possible use of vaccines, which were unavailable during the spring outbreak, and for streamlining the process by which farmers are indemnified for losses.

The government is trying to improve its response after farmers complained the USDA had moved too slowly in killing and disposing of infected flocks. Delays can contribute to the spread of the disease.

Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, in a statement released Friday, said she continues to hear from Iowa poultry and egg producers frustrated by the government's response to the spring outbreak.

A study commissioned by the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation pegged the state's economic loss at $1.2 billion - about $800 million in lost egg, chicken and turkey production, along with the goods and services needed for production, and $400 million in lost wages to workers and taxes to federal, state and local governments.

Of the 71 Iowa commercial sites affected by the disease, 18 farms - some raising turkeys, others producing eggs - have been cleaned and repopulated, according to Dustin Van De Hoef, Northey's spokesman.

Cleaning and disinfection have been completed in 64 of the 71 affected Iowa sites, and the ones that have yet to be repopulated are awaiting testing and approval, he said.

T.J. Myers, the USDA's associate deputy administrator for veterinary services, said the agency has never used 'ventilation shutdown.” It takes about 30 to 40 minutes for birds to die of heat stress during the process, he said.

'We certainly hope we don't have to use this, or any depopulation methods,” Myers said.

Separately, the USDA has allowed Harrisvaccines to become the first company to produce a vaccine to fight bird flu. The agency plans to build a stockpile of vaccines in case there is another outbreak. It has not given any company permission to market a vaccine.

Reuters contributed to this report.