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Iowa poultry industry on guard for avian flu

Iowa ag secretary Bill Northey says his department and Iowa poultry farmers are on guard following the recent report of highly pathogenic avian influenza on a Tennessee broiler farm.

“It does get everybody’s attention,” Northey says. “We have had producers that have really stepped up their biosecurity since the last avian influenza outbreak almost two years ago now. I think they’re probably double-checking all those plans and making sure they’re doing everything that they planned to do to keep the disease out of their farm.”

Northey says the industry and state and federal agencies learned a lot from the devastating 2015 outbreak and are better prepared for any future outbreaks.

“All of us know preparation don’t guarantee that there won’t be exposure, in a way for it to get into a facility,” he says. “The effort here is to, first of all, prevent it if we can—discover it as quickly as we can—and then minimize the likelihood of it being able to move from a facility to a neighboring facility.”

Iowa was one of states hardest hit by the 2015 outbreak.  Seventy-seven Iowa egg and turkey facilities were infected resulting in the loss of more than 31 million birds.

AUDIO: Bill Northey

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