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National & World Ag News Headlines |
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Tennessee Bird Flu Outbreak Likely Contained
USAgNet - 03/08/2017
U.S. Department of Agriculture officials say what could have been a major bird flu outbreak at the Tennessee border with Alabama may have been contained due to quick action.
Jack Shere, the department's top veterinarian, said in an interview on the department's website that the first signs of avian influenza in a Lincoln County, Tenn., chicken farm were noticed on Thursday. An "unusual mortality" showed up among the chickens there.
The farm, near the Alabama state line, had by Monday destroyed more than 73,000 chickens in eight barns to prevent the spread of H7 avian influenza, or HPAI.
The commercial breeder where the outbreak was detected supplies Tyson Foods, but officials have declined to identify the breeder.
The outbreak was announced Sunday. An Alabama Agriculture Department spokeswoman said the birds affected were not ready to be processed when the flu was detected.
Shere said a sweep of approximately 30 other poultry farms within a 6.2 mile radius of the site has turned up no signs of bird flu. There is also no evidence of it in any backyard flocks either.
Reuters reported that Tyson asked government officials to expand the zone around the farm to 10 miles from 6.2 miles to ensure all their commercial operations in the region were disease free. The company manages all the commercial facilities in the region.
Testing and monitoring will continue for up to 60 days. Shere said it's possible the birds could have contracted the flu from a nearby pond where migrating water fowl were known to visit.
Avian flu over a two-year period killed about 50 million birds in the U.S., beginning in 2014, but most of those were egg-laying hens in Iowa and the outbreak barely affected the south.
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