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HPAI outbreak has its differences from 2015

An animal health specialist says the current surge of highly pathogenic avian influenza has been different from the 2015 outbreak.

Dr. Jeff Kaisand is the State Veterinarian in Iowa. He says positive cases of the virus continued through the fall and winter.

“We’ve heard reports of the migratory birds to the south that there are still mortality events occurring there,” he said. “Everybody is absolutely quite concerned that when the migratory birds come back through that we will have an increase (in cases).”

Kaisand tells Brownfield the current outbreak has also had a larger impact on the wild bird population.

“We actually have even seen some isolation from crows and eagles,” Kaisand said. “So, it’s not only migratory birds, but it’s also in other wild birds. That’s a huge difference that we didn’t see in 2015.”

But he says poultry producers have ramped up biosecurity efforts to help curb farm-to-farm spread.

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