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The second confirmed case of avian influenza in a turkey operation in Missouri has been reported by the Missouri Department of Agriculture.
The second case in the state was reported late Monday in Moniteau County at a turkey growing facility. The facility, on Newkirk Road in Fortuna, houses 21,000 turkeys. The MDA is continuing to coordinate response with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, state health officials and industry partners.
Earlier, state officials reported Sunday that turkeys at a grower facility in Jasper County – a flock of 30,100 birds – had been infected with the H5N2 avian influenza. USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratory (NVSL) reported it was the first time H5N2 had been detected in Missouri.
State Sen. Mike Parson, R-Bolivar, said he has confidence Missouri’s agriculture department will contain this illness. Parsons said he had been informed MDA would be instituting “rapid response” to the outbreak at the facility in Moniteau County.
“I have every confidence that the Missouri Department of Agriculture will be able to contain this outbreak,” Parson said from his Jefferson City office. “I am confident Missouri Agriculture can step in and handle this situation.”
Missouri agriculture officials report the state agency continues to follow strict protocols to contain and eliminate the disease. The facilities were immediately quarantined and the remaining turkeys in the involved flocks will be depopulated and will not enter the food system. Testing procedures are underway at properties near the affected facilities to ensure the virus has not spread.
Marvin Childers, president of the Poultry Federation of Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma, said the outbreak of illness in the poultry operations should not be considered a threat to the public’s healthy or the food supply. He added that the virus is carried by wild waterfowl.
“Our poultry and egg companies give serious consideration and take immediate preventative steps whenever an avian influenza outbreak is confirmed,” Childers said. “We will supply whatever resources are needed to the MDA and the United State Department of Agriculture (USDA) as they implement their coordinated response.”
Childers emphasized that this strain of avian influenza found is lethal to birds but is not known to have caused disease in humans and is not expected to pose a risk to public health.
While lethal to birds, no human cases of these avian influenza viruses have been detected in the United States, Canada, or internationally, MDA officials report. The specimens from Moniteau County were tested by the state animal health diagnostic lab in Springfield and the APHIS National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Iowa confirmed the finding.
MDA encourages all bird owners, whether commercial producers or backyard enthusiasts, to continue practicing good biosecurity, preventing contact between their birds and wild birds, and reporting sick birds or unusual bird deaths to a veterinarian and the Missouri Department of Agriculture’s Animal Health division.
Courtesy of sedaliademocrat.com
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