Rapid concerted response mitigating avian virus impact
Update: Total number of birds affected:
Commercial turkeys: 245,163
Commercial chickens (layers): 156,000 that will be culled due to their proximity to an infected flock.
Original: The rapid response by local, state and federal agencies to the avian flu infection in northeastern Dubois County continues to bear some relatively good news.
“Things are going well,” said the Dubois County Emergency Management Director Tammy Humbert today. “We are getting a handle on the situation and we are on a positive path.”
Dr. Bret Marsh, the Indiana State Veterinarian, announced that the concerted effort between the different state, county and federal agencies had led to over 900 homes being contacted within an extended 20-kilometer area around the first infection site.
He reported that since the initial 10 turkey operations were found to have one of two variants of the H7N8 virus, over 100 tests have come back negative for the virus.
The infection was found on an operation belonging to Steve and Dan Kalb on East Dubois Road Northwest just outside of Dubois. The infected birds were near their time to be processed but according to Marsh, the operators found several birds had died and immediately contacted authorities. “No one knows their birds better than the folks who are raising them,” Marsh said. “When things are out of the ordinary, that is when we start getting phone calls. The fact is, the producer knew there was something wrong.”
The producer then called the company’s veterinarian, who took samples and immediately sent them to Purdue for testing.
Since then, the area has been a whirlwind of activity as the multi-agency response moved quickly to contain and eradicate the infection that was found. They are required by international law to create the initial 10-kilometer zone around the infection site.
According to Marsh, any products moving in or out of the zone can only be done by permit. To be sure about the virus, the response has expanded out another 10-kilometers for contacting and testing of flocks, including small operations and backyard flocks.
Marsh added that the response by the local authorities and the residents in the area being tested had been phenomenal. “We have knocked on over 900 homes in this area to see if they have birds. Only about 27 have been found to have birds and we plan on testing them,” Marsh said as he explained how he had been personally contacted by a resident to thank them for their efforts. “I was warmed by that and by the community that has recognized our efforts and been willing to pitch in.”
The other nine commercial operations that tested positive have all been confirmed as having the low-pathogenic version of the H7N8 virus. The Kalb farm is the only one that tested positive for the high-pathogenic version.
Regardless of the type of H7N8 found, the flocks are destroyed due to the rapid mutation that can occur with the virus. A low-pathogenic version that does not kill poultry can spread and mutate to the high-pathogenic version and decimate the flock.
So far, the 241,000 birds destroyed represents about 15 to 17 percent of the total population of turkeys produced in the county annually. The quick response by the agencies involved likely mitigated the spread of the disease through the area and to other populations of poultry like chickens and ducks. The spread would have had a potentially devastating impact on the poultry economy in a county known as the top producer of turkeys in the state.
The response is likely to continue for several weeks. The recent drop in temperatures has hampered the depopulation of the turkeys. A foam application is being used to euthanize the birds, but the cold temperatures are impeding the foam as well as freezing lines. Workers will now be manually depopulating the identified flocks.
After the birds are killed, the bodies and organic materials in the turkey houses are piled into the middle of the house to compost. According to Marsh, the hot temperatures created by the composting neutralizes the virus. The amount of time it takes for that to occur depends on several factors including the temperatures in the houses.
Once they are composted completely, the compost can be removed and the house is thoroughly cleaned. After environmental test confirm the virus is gone, the farmer can begin to repopulate the flock. The birds can be ready for market in about 140 days.
According to Marsh, the United States Department of Agriculture will indemnify the producers for the lost birds. “They will establish a price for the value of the birds and they [producers] will be compensated for their loss,” Marsh said. “In addition, there is a lot of other work besides depopulating the birds … those costs are also being covered by the US Department of Agriculture. They [producers] agree to the price before the process begins.”
According to Donna Oeding, Dubois County Health Department director, they are taking precautions to ensure the infection is not moving on to those working with the infected birds. “We know that the risk to the general public is extremely low, but we are conducting interviews with anybody that has worked on the farms or is part of the depopulation process,” she explained. “We will be monitoring them for up to ten days after their last exposure to any dead birds to make sure we don’t see any kinds of symptoms.”
If symptoms do appear, Oeding explained they would provide samples for testing to determine if there has been a transmission to humans. “But the bottom line is that we believe there is a very low risk of that occurring,” Oeding added.
The cause of the outbreak is still unknown, but officials plan on completing a forensic investigation to determine how the virus came into the area. The virus can be spread by migrating wild birds that come through the Mississippi flyway. Dubois County lies in that flyway and those wild birds can leave infected droppings that will introduce the disease to domesticated flocks. While the wild birds are immune, domesticated poultry is not.
According to the president of the Indiana State Poultry Association, Paul Brennan, the spread of the disease has been rapid. “Those birds were tested on the 6th of January,” he said about the first flock found to be infected on January 15. “It’s that quick. That’s why we are jumping on this thing.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is the only federal agency in the county. Residents are likely seeing license plates from several states since they sent 50 representatives and private contractors to assist with the response. State agencies on scene include the Indiana Board of Animal Health, Indiana Department of Agriculture, Indiana Department of Homeland Security, Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Indiana Department of Health, Indiana Department of Environmental Management, Indiana Department of Correction, and Indiana State Police.
Marsh said the fact that Dubois County has a regional airport has greatly assisted in getting the testing completed. He explained that the USDA has been flying samples out to the National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa testing facility directly from the Huntingburg Airport.
“There is a lot of testing going on and we are finding a lot of negative sites,” Marsh said. “We are hopeful that we have found that endpoint, but we aren’t stopping. We want to make sure that before we are done we have found that last infection so we are not here again sometime in the future having these discussions.”
