Dive Brief:
- For the second time in a week, a chicken flock at a commercial breeding operation in Tennessee tested positive for avian influenza, but it was a different strain than the first one discovered, according to Meating Place.
- Located in Giles County, the flock was depopulated as a precaution and the facility is under quarantine.
- State officials don’t believe one facility sickened the other. The second flock tested positive for low-pathogenic avian influenza, which has a lower mortality rate.
Dive Insight:
With two reported operators testing positive for bird flu in the past week, Tennessee chicken and egg farmers are on alert. It's unknown whether the two near-simultaneous outbreaks are merely a coincidence, or this bodes for more problems in the weeks ahead.
Not much information was given about the new operator, other than it was located in Giles County and the flock was depopulated as a precaution. Additionally, all domesticated poultry within a 6.2-mile radius has been quarantined, and no affected animals entered the food supply, according to the Tennessee Agriculture Department. As of Friday, no other flocks of chickens have been found to have the virus, but labs are continuing to run diagnostic tests.
The USDA has alerted the public that the strains are a different virus and is “genetically distinct” from China’s H7N9 bird-flu strain that has sickened poultry and infected humans in Asia.
“We’re very positive that we’ve taken care of it,” USDA chief veterinarian Jack Shere said in a broadcast that was posted to the agency’s website. “There’s no evidence based on the commercial flocks that have been tested, in addition to the infected flock, of any spread at this time.”
Avian influenza is a quickly spreading and serious disease, which can come from a number of sources, including wild birds. After a serious outbreak in 2015, which led to the deaths of 48 million birds nationwide and shrank the supply of eggs and turkeys, the US Poultry & Egg Association put together guidelines to better plan for emergencies. This may be the first test of those new procedures.
Because the virus strain found in the latest flock is low pathogeic, it is not as serious to the flock as a more fatal variety. According to the USDA, there are ways to control the spread that don't involve destroying infected birds.
However, this second evidence of virus doesn't look good for the United States and international trade. After the first evidence was found, several countries in Asia banned all imports of U.S. poultry products. It remains to be seen if this second outbreak further impacts exports.