The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued a report on it plans and preparedness steps for a likely return of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in US poultry this fall as turkey growers followed suit.
The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) also released guidance on euthanizing poultry on affected farms.
HPAI, primarily the H5N2 strain, affected more than 48.8 million poultry in 21 states earlier this year, hitting Iowa and Minnesota the hardest. APHIS officials have used the time since the last detection was reported on Jun 17 to prepare for a return of the disease, using a hypothetical worst-case scenario, the agency said in a Sep 18 press release.
Scenario: 500 affected farms
The USDA’s worst-case scenario that it used for planning purposes involved 500 or more commercial farms of various sizes across a wide part of the country, according to the report, titled, “Fall 2015 HPAI Preparedness and Response Plan.” The exercise included multiple sectors of the poultry industry at the same time.
The 2015 outbreaks hit 211 commercial and 21 backyard poultry holdings, primarily in the spring. They cost taxpayers $950 million, the report says.
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