The worst avian flu epidemic ever to hit U.S. poultry farms was spread in part by lapses in biosecurity among producers as well as “environmental factors,” said the government in an initial report on the disease that will depress table egg and turkey production into 2016. USDA’s animal health agency said it plans to meet with industry and state officials in July to discuss security standards.
“After conducting investigations on over 80 commercial poultry farms, [our] analysis indicates that there are likely several ways the virus could be transmitted, including lapses in biosecurity practices and environmental factors,” said the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. APHIS said it could not identify “one factor or group of factors in a statistically significant way at this time.”
Migratory birds “are the original pathway” for bringing the disease into the country, said the agency, but “it appears the virus spreading in other ways as well.” Genetic analyses “suggest that independent introductions as well as transmission between farms were occurring in several states concurrently.”
“For example, APHIS has observed the following: Sharing of equipment between an infected and non-infected farm; employees moving between infected and non-infected farms; lack of cleaning and disinfection of vehicles moving between farms; and reports of rodents or small wild birds inside the poultry houses,” said the report.
In addition, investigators found virus particles in air samples taken outside of infected poultry houses, “indicating that the virus could be transmitted by air.” A preliminary analysis shows a relationship between sustained high winds and outbreaks five days later. The agency said it is conducting further work “to better characterize environmental factors that may contribute to virus spread.”
The arrival of warm spring weather is helping to stop the disease; viruses prefer lower temperatures. During the six-month epidemic that started in the Pacific Northwest, there have been 222 outbreaks that resulted in the death of 47.1 million fowl. Iowa, the No. 1 egg state, has lost 30.7 million birds, mostly egg-laying hens. Minnesota, the top turkey state, lost nearly 9 million turkeys and chickens. Nebraska is third in losses with 3.8 million birds.
Egg production is forecast to fall by 5 percent this year, and to be 4.5 percent lower in 2016, because of bird flu, pushing egg prices to record highs, says the USDA. Turkey production is forecast down by 7 percent this year.
Iowa poultry farmers will lose “huge amounts of income and we will have some that may not go back into business when this is all done as well,” said Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey in the Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Gazette. Northey estimated that egg producers would lose a combined $50 million a month in egg sales due to the 26 million hens that died from avian influenza or were culled because of the disease.