Concerns of possible outbreaks in North America have been raised due to the highly pathogenic strains of bird flu. Cuba has suspended all imports of chicken from the United States due to a suspicion of the bird flu epidemic.
From June onwards, eggs, both in shells which are sold to consumers and cracked eggs which are sold to the bakeries and restaurants, had hit all-time highs in prices due to the shortage caused by the outbreak.
“The scale of this outbreak has been unprecedented, so we think it is important we take every possible step to limit the chance that this disease will spread any further,” said Bill Northey, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture.
“This [bird flu outbreak] is a moving target, and the number of farms affected has continued to increase We don't know what the ceiling will be,” Mark Dayton, Minnesota governor.
All auctions, swap meets and live bird exhibitions, including at the Iowa State Fair, have been canceled due to the H5N2 bird flu outbreak, health officials announced.
Dayton has declared a state of emergency over an H5N2 bird flu outbreak, which is responsible for the deaths of 2.5 million turkeys from 46 Minnesota farms. Minnesota's poultry industry has already lost $310 million from the bird flu outbreak, University of Minnesota researchers said. Around 46 million turkeys are raised in Minnesota each year, generating $600 million.
South Dakota officials said that bird flu had been found at an eastern South Dakota farm, after finding an usual number of dead birds, they contacted state officials. The company's 1.3 million egg-laying chickens account to about half of all the egg-laying chickens in the state.
Highly pathogenic H5N8 bird flu virus was found in a backyard poultry flock in Indiana, the USDA announced. Seventy-seven birds died and the rest are removed. This is the first time the strain is found in the central U.S. H5N8 is different from H5N2, which has led to 30 million bird deaths.
Poultry farm workers across a number of states are being provided the drug Tamiflu as a precaution, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
By Premji
