MINNEAPOLIS (Washington Insider Magazine)– After a break of many months, bird flu has reappeared in the Midwest sooner than expected. The highly virulent disease has been found in 2 commercial turkey flocks in western Minnesota and a hobby flock in Indiana, officials announced Wednesday.
According to the Minnesota Board of Animal Health, the illness was discovered after a farm in Meeker County reported a rise in mortality over the last weekend. To curb the spread, the flock was put to sleep. A second flock in the county tested positive on Tuesday night, the board subsequently confirmed.
They were the first avian influenza cases reported in Minnesota since a small flock in Becker County was infected on May 31. Before this week, the Midwest had not had a case since a domestic flock there tested positive on June 8. Indiana’s case was the region’s first since that time.
But there have been many discoveries in western states in July and August, including California, where six commercial farms have had to put more than 425,000 hens and turkeys to death since last week. According to ABC NEWS, incidents have also been documented in Utah, Washington, Oregon, and a few eastern states.
A small hobby flock of geese, ducks, and chickens in northern Indiana’s Elkhart County tested presumptively positive on Tuesday, according to the Indiana State Board of Animal Health, though official confirmation from a federal lab was still awaited.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that since February, 414 flocks in 39 states have been infected nationwide, costing producers around 40 million birds, primarily commercial chickens and turkeys. This year, the infection has affected 81 flocks in Minnesota, necessitating the killing of close to 2.7 million birds.
Minnesota is the state that produces the most turkeys each year.
The outbreak this year led to an increase in the cost of meat and eggs and claimed an overwhelming number of bald eagles as well as other wild birds. Other zoos were impacted as well. In June, it seemed to be decreasing, but officials issued a warning that another surge might occur this fall.
Birds that migrate frequently carry the disease with them. The USDA prevents birds from flocks with the disease from entering the food chain and only rarely impacts people, such as farm employees. In 15 states, a large-scale outbreak in 2015 resulted in the deaths of 50 million birds, at a cost to the federal government of around $1 billion.