COLUMBUS, Ohio — With news of avian influenza outbreaks in Kentucky, Tennessee and three other states, the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) is working aggressively with the state’s poultry industry and federal partners to prevent the spread of viruses.

 

Ohio has no reported cases of avian flu at this time, but officials are taking steps to keep the Buckeye State free from it. “Preventing contact between flocks and wild birds is one of the most important steps any farmer can take to keep animals healthy and prevent the spread of avian influenza,” said Dr. Tony Forshey, state veterinarian.

 

ODA asked the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) to grant relief that now allows organic poultry producers to temporarily confine their flocks and maintain organic certification. This is a critical biosecurity measure requested by Ohio producers, and one ODA encourages all poultry producers, including small-scale backyard farmers, to implement.

 

Many Ohio farms have already taken strict action to implement heightened biosecurity measures that protect poultry, and with good reason. Multiple cases of low-pathogenic avian flu (LPAI) have been found in Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama and Wisconsin, in addition to a strain of high-pathogenic flu (HPAI) in Tennessee chickens last month.

 

The Kentucky Department of Agriculture said last week it was temporarily banning the transportation of poultry after a low-pathogenic form of the disease was found in a commercial flock of 22,000 hens in the western region of the state. The farm was placed under quarantine and the birds were killed.

 

The disease was first confirmed in southern Tennessee in early March and has since been detected in northern Alabama and western Kentucky. In those three states more than 200,000 birds were euthanized. More than 70,000 chickens were slaughtered at a Tennessee chicken farm and 30 other farms within a six-mile radius are quarantined. The farm in question is in Lincoln County, just west of Chattanooga.

 

In Georgia, a flock of chickens in a Chattanooga County commercial farm tested positive for LPAI, the Georgia Department of Agriculture said. The entire flock was killed as a precaution. It is the first confirmation ever of bird flu in commercial poultry in that state.

 

In Alabama, three poultry sites are being investigated over suspected flu concerns. Aviagen, a large poultry breeding company, said last week in a Reuters report that it euthanized 42,000 chickens over disease concerns. Alabama is the second-largest poultry producer in the nation.

 

“Agriculture officials are trying to limit the damage from the disease, but it’s unclear whether quarantines, transportation bans and mass killings will stop the spread,” said Joseph Hess, a poultry science professor at Auburn University. In March, the USDA said a flock of 84,000 turkeys had been confirmed with a low-pathogenic bird flu virus in Wisconsin.

 

In 2014 and 2015, a U.S. avian flu outbreak required the slaughter of 50 million chickens (mostly egg-laying hens) and turkeys. As a result, U.S. egg prices reached record highs. And early last year, a southern Indiana farm successfully contained the spread a strain of HPAI on a turkey farm.

 

Avian flu is a disease with zoonotic potential, meaning it can spread between animals and people through contact. China

was the most recent place this occurred.