Iowa has reached a milestone in its response to the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreak that spread across the nation earlier this year. On Thursday, the Iowa Department of Agriculture announced state officials had lifted restrictions on the movement of poultry or poultry products for the final site still under quarantine, located in Bremer County. Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig says, “Reaching this important milestone allows impacted farmers to turn the page from responding to the outbreak to repopulating flocks and returning to turkey and poultry production. This year’s outbreak was thankfully much smaller than the one in 2015 in large part due to the lessons learned and positive changes implemented by farmers, our team at the Iowa Department of Agriculture, and USDA.” As of July 21, an estimated 40.1 million birds were affected by the HPAI outbreak. Iowa saw the most significant impact, with nearly 13.4 million birds euthanized to prevent the highly contagious bird flu from spreading to other birds. Currently, there are zero commercial sites under quarantine, but four backyard flocks are still restricted. Those final four flocks will be released once requirements are met, which include cleaning, disinfecting, and environmental sampling. While HPAI is waning, state officials encourage producers to continue monitoring their flocks for any unusual deaths.
