News
Poultry producers facing significant financial losses
The Indiana Board of Animal Health says Indiana poultry producers recently hit with avian influenza have a lot of challenges moving forward. One of the toughest, Denise Derrer says, will be the financial losses. “The farmers who have infected sites are eligible to receive indemnity money for the value of the birds that were lost,” she says. “As well as the clean-up costs for cleaning and disinfecting the barns which will happen after all of the disposal is completed.”
She tells Brownfield producers will also be reimbursed for feed that has to be disposed of on the property.
But, that is all. “The downside is there is no compensation for lost production and moving forward lost labor,” she says. “It’s going to be a financial hardship for those affected.”
Derrer says farms that were infected with the virus won’t be back into production anytime soon. She says the depopulation and disposal process takes about 30 days and then the barns need to be cleaned and disinfected. “Provided we haven’t found any more new infection in the area, we’ll start a clock ticking of 21 days,” she says. “Because that’s the incubation period for this virus. As long as we can keep testing in the area and not find anything on a farm nearby within 21 days then barns will be clear for re-stocking.”
About 400,000 birds have been depopulated since last week after a new strain of the avian flu was discovered at a commercial turkey production facility.
With a major loss like this….who pays for the loss…?