Bird flu hit U.S. poultry producers hard this spring, but it hasn’t been nearly as devastating as 2015. That outbreak was the largest High Pathogenic Avian Influenza outbreak ever recorded in the U.S. and USDA says it was the the most significant animal health event in U.S. history.
To date, more than 38 million birds in 35 states have been lost in 2022, closing in on 2015 when USDA reported losses of 7.4 million turkey’s and 43 million egg layers. But industry experts says that’s where the similarity ends.
In 2015 the HPAI virus was spread by lateral transmission, mostly through human contact. But Dr. Craig Rowles, President of the Iowa Poultry Association, says in 2022 the spread is much different. “This virus, this time is circulating through a wide population of wild birds. We’re talking dozens and dozens of species of birds its been identified in. And so our risk factors are slightly different. “
Officials still aren’t sure how the virus is getting into the barns, but they do know it emerged earlier than in 2015 and has persisted with the cool spring. Rowles, who is also General Manager for Cage Free Production at Versova Management Company, says, “Historically avian influenza started as a low path, then was introduced into a domestic bird and then it would mutate into high path. This particular strain of influenza started in Asia, it moved to northern Europe a could years ago and then it finally got to our borders just in the last year and its been amazing how fast it has spread across all species of birds in the flyways its been remarkable.”
In 2015, 5% of the wild bird population carried the disease, this year its estimated at nearly 35%.
However, due to changes made in biosecurity protocols in 2015 one of the largest egg producers in Iowa, Center Fresh, has had only minimal losses in their 20 million layer operation this year. Bruce Dooyema, Center Fresh Egg Farm, Flock Logistics Coordinator/Owner, says, “In 2015 we were hit severely by bird flu. We had to put down 8 million birds in our facility. So far this go around in 2022 we’ve only had one of our pullet sites hit with bird flu so its only affected about 240,000 pullets.”
DuBois County, Indiana turkey producer Kevin Kalb’s operation was also spared this spring, unlike the last outbreak. “No issues with the bird flu this year just thank the good Lord. I don’t ever want to go through that again. That was miserable.”
He says biosecurity is the main reason his operation was not infected, while flocks just 10 miles away were hit.
Kalb says, “We’ve got lines of separation in our buildings where you know you come in you take your clothes off there from the outside. Yes, you’re in the same room but once you jump over to the other side of that line and put other clothes on that’s only been in that building. We’ve got foot baths that we use, wash our hands, sterilize our hands.”
The industry as a whole spent millions of dollars to adopt this Danish system and Rowles says its been a strong line of defense against a virus that is spreading quicker over time. He says, “In the outbreaks that are occurring in this year the epidemiologists are telling us that our efforts have really limited the transmission of the virus by that route, by human transmission of virus.”
Which he says has likely prevented an even bigger bird flu disaster in 2022.
The other big difference is the rapid response from industry, and state and federal ag officials is allowing the industry to repopulate herds faster and get eggs and poultry products back into grocery stores quicker than it did 7 years ago.
