Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey spent Wednesday afternoon at the World Pork Expo in Des Moines talking about the state’s struggles managing bird flu. The volume of cases has subsided in Iowa from a month ago when the state had 23 commercial operations hit by the virus in just a one-week period. However, Iowa has racked up devastating losses including 1 million destroyed turkeys and millions of chickens.

Some counties, such as Sioux County, have seen their entire commercial production wiped out and Northey says he’s not sure if those barns will be repopulated.

Northey says another challenge is figuring out when a barn is ready for production again. A turkey operation, where birds are being composted on site, will go through a disinfection process. Producers may then bring in “sentinel birds” to test the facility.

He says however, producers could be facing months without income, despite the indemnity paid by USDA for losses. And a bird flu vaccine is a ways off. USDA issued a caution Wednesday against counting on an effective vaccine right now that could work while not risking U.S. export markets at the same time.