Source:Chris Scott, MEATINGPLACE, 8/5/15


East Coast poultry producers and processors are again being warned by various entities about the upcoming fall waterfowl migration in light of the 2014-2015 outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) strains in western and Midwestern states.

Vermont State Veterinarian Kristin Haas, for example, said in a news release that HPAI is expected to arrive on the East Coast either this fall or in the spring of 2016 with the migration of wild birds that may spread the disease. Haas also suggested that the local poultry industry should prepare and become familiar with the disease and learn the lessons learned in the Midwest outbreak before any outbreaks happen in their areas.

Although no strains of HPAI have been detected in Vermont so far, the anticipated wild bird migration along the Eastern Flyway could lead to similar conditions seen during the Mississippi Flyway outbreak that has killed more than 48 million birds so far, according to the most recent USDA figures.

“Historically, the Eastern Flyway has not been spared by avian flu outbreaks, and there is no reason to expect that the disease won’t show up here this time,” Penn State University Professor of Wildlife Resources Margaret Brittingham told Penn State News. She noted that an outbreak two years ago carried a strain of bird flu from Asia to a breeding area in the Bering Sea region that somehow carried it to Alaska, then to the Pacific-Northwest and, ultimately, to the East Coast.

“The difference this time seems to be that this strain of the disease is so pathogenic,” Brittingham added.
USDA officials estimate that recovering from the most recent outbreaks could cost the federal government as much as $700 million.

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