Another 5.3 million birds were hit at another Iowa egg farm
earlier this month.
All the birds that have not died will be euthanized.
Iowa’s Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey announced this
fifth outbreak in the state.
Northey added that there is “a belief” the avian influenza
crisis will dissipate when the weather turns warmer, but added that the virus
could return in the fall.
Minnesota has lost 55
farms, is under a state of emergency and estimates that it will face a $7.3-mlllion
bill to compensate farmers whose flocks have been destroyed to stop the spread
of the disease.
More than three million turkeys and chickens in Minnesota have
been killed so far.
Ontario’s poultry industry is on pins and needles, hoping
there will be no more than the three outbreaks so far – a turkey farm owned by
the province’s largest turkey-producing family business, a broiler breeder
chicken operation and a modest turkey farm across the road from the chickens.
All of those farms are in Oxford County, but about 30 kilometers apart.
There are 10-kilometre quarantine zones around those two
outbreak sites so more than 50 poultry farmers can’t move anything in, such as
new pullets for egg-laying operations and poults for broiler and turkey farms.
