Poultry producers in the region are on alert after the confirmation of a highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in a backyard flock in Pottawattamie County, Iowa this week Iowa Secretary of Ag Mike Naig says the case was expected with increasing cases across the eastern U.S. He says they’re prepared for the disease and there have been no changes in the export status for poultry from the state of Iowa.
Naig says the positive case in Iowa, even in a backyard flock, heightens risks to other, larger commercial operations given that Iowa is the country’s largest egg-producing state.
Iowa State Veterinarian Jeff Kaisand says the backyard flock of fewer than 50 chickens and ducks was quarantined and there were no commercial flocks in the surveillance zone.
The 2015 HPAI outbreak caused 33 million chickens in Iowa, mostly in egg-laying operations, to be depopulated. APHIS on Tuesday had reported a confirmed case in a backyard flock in Connecticut.
