Three additional turkey operations in Minnesota have been hit with bird flu.
The Minnesota Board of Animal Health says outbreaks of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), have been confirmed in Kandiyohi County, Meeker County, and Stearns County.
Dr. Shauna Voss with the Minnesota Poultry Testing Lab in Willmar is urging producers to maintain strict bio-security measures, but acknowledges that the virus is very difficult to control…
“No one thing is going to be perfect to prevent it. You can kind of, you know, look at it like a swiss cheese approach. You need to implement a lot of different procedures and methods and putting them all together. Then what is the best protection to keep that virus out. We continue to make sure that our producers have their best security plans in place and that everybody’s trained on them. And now more important than ever to make sure that they’re being implemented perfectly.”
While a vaccine for bird flu does exist, it is not yet approved for use by the USDA. International trading partners have expressed concerns about purchasing treated birds, which has stalled the vaccine’s use.
(content: courtesy MNN)
