USDA Reports First Commercial Case of Bird Flu Variety Since ’04
Source: Bloomberg
By Megan Durisin Jan 26, 2015 12:32 PM ET
A variety of bird flu found on a California poultry farm is the first domestic commercial case of the more rapidly spreading virus in more than 10 years, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N8 was found in a commercial turkey flock, the USDA said on its website on Jan. 24. This is the first instance in commercial poultry of the virus that’s highly contagious among birds since a 2004 detection of the H5N2 strain in Texas, according to an e-mail Monday from USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service spokeswoman Joelle Hayden. There is no immediate public health concern, the agency said.
Several avian flu cases have been reported in wild birds and backyard poultry flocks in the U.S. Pacific Northwest since mid-December, prompting China to ban poultry imports last month. U .S. chicken production is centered in the southeastern part of the country.
“At this point, it’s been mostly in wild birds,” Will Sawyer, a vice president of U.S. animal protein research in Atlanta for Rabobank International, said in a telephone interview. “There is still the risk that the West Coast could see it spread throughout that part of the country. For most of U.S. production, we’re still 1,000 miles away.”
Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-01-26/usda-reports-first-commercial-case-of-bird-flu-variety-since-04.html
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