Frigid air slows efforts to euthanize turkeys in Indiana

Turkeys tested positive for bird flu at nine more IN farms near the location where authorities first confirmed a strain different from the one that ravaged the USA poultry industry last summer, IN authorities said on Saturday.

Meanwhile records by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development states that the virus has affected 93 local government areas in 22 states and the FCT, with total number of 541 cases confirmed, which 2, 378,698 birds have been depopulated, and compensation of N709, 969, 987 paid to 276 farmers.

Temperatures that dipped into the teens and single digits over the weekend stymied efforts to fill the affected poultry barns with the foam to a level just above the turkeys’ heads to suffocate them, said Denise Derrer of the Indiana State Board of Animal Health.

“Hopefully as we respond quickly to this virus we can get it contained and hopefully not see an extensive outbreak like we did a year ago”, said T.J. Myers, a veterinary services administrator with the USDA.

“He added that there was now no vaccination exercise going on in any poultry farm, but we encourage you to cooperate with us, and also farm owners, sellers and drivers should cooperate among themselves to fight the disease, and don’t spread the disease and don’t be smart to say you want to sell every poultry product, and it will back fire because the virus brings down a farm within a week”, he stated. APHIS is working closely with the Indiana State Board of Animal Health on a joint incident response. It did not give figures for the other seven.

Almost 120,000 turkeys have been killed on four farms so far, with six farms with about 121,000 turkeys left to euthanize.

APHIS said that the rapid testing and response was put in action as a result of months of planning following the previous avian flu outbreaks in 2015. Research has shown that wild birds’ northern migration introduced the H5N2 virus, which began to accelerate from farm to farm in the spring. But some producers tested farms outside that radius — a few even in IL near the in border, Derrer said. That outbreak led to the deaths of about 48 million turkeys and chickens.