INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — On May 26, the Indiana State Board of Animal Health (BOAH) unanimously passed an emergency order forbidding the movement of birds to a public sale, or to a show event such as a county or state fair.
The measure results from the nationwide spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza, which was discovered in the state around May 9 in a backyard flock in Whitley County, northeastern Indiana.
"This issue has taken on a significance in our country unlike anything I’ve seen before," said Dr. Bret D. Marsh, Indiana state veterinarian, noting the outbreak is unprecedented in its size and scope. "It has gone in a way we’ve not seen before, with cases in Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, the Dakotas, Nebraska, with billions of birds involved in multiple sites throughout those areas."
Marsh told the board the H5 infections were first detected last November in Washington state. The virus was carried to susceptible birds by migrating waterfowl, ducks and geese on the Pacific Flyway, which are asymptomatic. "You can’t tell by looking at them they harbor the virus," he said, "and yet they kill these other species."
Migratory flyways meet in Canada and arctic regions, resulting in mixing of birds and the spreading of avian virus strains.
"We had the West Coast situation, with Washington, Oregon and California, and suddenly, in March, we ended up with these cases in the Mississippi and Central flyways – cases in Arkansas, Missouri," Marsh said. "Then, on March 4, there was a diagnosis in Pope County, Minn., and it was in a commercial turkey operation; almost 100 percent mortality in one of the turkey buildings on that site, about 15,000 birds."
The cases in Minnesota and other upper Midwest states are the H5N2 virus; the one in Indiana was H5N8, the virus strain initially found in the Northwest. The designations indicate the number of hemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N) proteins on the surface of the virus.
"This is not a food safety threat," Marsh stressed. "There is no risk to humans."
Discovery of the Indiana case was a result of increased awareness of the viral threat. Marsh said he happened to be holding a briefing at the BOAH office in Indianapolis on methods to dispose of infected birds when the call came in.
"The message was from a market operator, and he said, ‘I got a call from a guy who bought birds at my market last week, and he’s not happy with them, because they died. And he said, ‘I may be crying wolf – it might not be anything – but I thought you should know, because you guys have been coming up to my sale up here and handing out these brochures about avian influenza.’"
BOAH welcomes all calls, as it is safer to know bird deaths are due to other causes than to ignore a possible outbreak.
Testing conducted by state authorities and confirmed by the National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, showed H5N8. A protocol was set in motion to set up a 10-kilometer area around the infection site and to test birds from the market where the infected poultry were bought.
There was also a door-to-door search for all birds kept in the area. The investigation even involved the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) checking a nearby marshy area. The good news is there seem to be no further infections – a second round of testing is under way, and more negative results will end the quarantine.
The bad news is that it’s more difficult to detect the initial source.
"The (market) consignors are negative; the birds in the neighborhood are negative; the environmental samples in the swamp are negative; so we’re still trying to determine how it became infected," Marsh said.
This echoes the earlier situation in Minnesota, where the devastating H5N2 strain spread without a clear indication of how the infection started.
"There is a lot of caution right now" among commercial poultry growers, said Kent Peter, the poultry industry representative to BOAH. "Until we get a grasp of the epidemiology – how it’s moving – it will be senseless to move poultry around the state of Indiana without an understanding of how this virus is working."
The board made it clear the new restriction does not end movement, just comingling. It does not prohibit moving birds to slaughter or prevent private sales. "We wouldn’t have a way to monitor private sales, anyway," Marsh said.
However, this does apply to all birds, not just chickens and turkeys. "That’s why it’s worded ‘birds’ and not ‘poultry.’" he explained. "That would include pigeons, Guinea fowl, peacocks, et cetera.
"Part of the challenge is, I don’t know if peacocks can carry (the virus) or not. We don’t know at this point, so until we can figure out how these other feathered critters may or may not contribute to this challenge, that’s why it’s ‘birds.’"
The order took effect immediately and lasts for 90 days, with the possibility of a single 90-day extension. That renewal will be considered at BOAH’s regular July 9 meeting, as well as consideration of what to do afterward.
"On the other side of this," Marsh said, "is trying to figure out how to reestablish some of these programs safely. For example, it won’t be long until we’re talking about the 2016 fairs."
