With no cases of bird flu reported since June, the Iowa Agriculture Department ended its ban on live bird exhibitions at county fairs, livestock auctions, swap meets and other avian gatherings. State Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey said it was “another sign we continue to recover from this devastating animal health emergency.”
Iowa, the No. 1 egg-producing state, was hit the hardest in the nation by highly pathogenic avian influenza last year, losing 31.5 million fowl, most of them hens that lay eggs for table consumption. The ban on poultry exhibitions was imposed last May 21 during the worst bird flu epidemic ever to hit the United States.
No cases have been reported this winter. The USDA, state officials, and the poultry industry have tightened safeguards against the spread of the virus, which can kill a flock in two days.
France has reported 64 cases of the highly pathogenic avian influenza, affecting six southwestern regions, said The Poultry Site. The outbreaks began a few weeks ago.