WASHINGTON: The US Department of Agriculture may expand restrictions on US Poultry exports after the first infection of a contagious strain of avian flu has been identified in poultry in Kansas.
The infection confirmed by USDA was the first case in an established migratory bird route, also known as the central flyway that stretches roughly north-south from Montana to Texas.
Major buyers of U.S. poultry such as Canada and Mexico have already restricted imports from states that have recently been infected with the same flu strain.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has already banned the importation of poultry products from six US states –Missouri, Minnesota, California, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.
Last week, Kansas officials quarantined the infected property in Leavenworth County, and birds there will be culled to prevent the spread of the disease. A quarantine zone has been imposed in two counties even before a case of the flu was confirmed on Friday to limit the movement of poultry.
Other states with recent H5N2 cases, including Minnesota and Missouri, have also established quarantine zones around infected farms and are testing nearby flocks in line with existing U.S. requirements.
The USDA also identified the first case in Arkansas, in the heart of the U.S. poultry-producing region.
Arkansas authorities has established a quarantine zone around a farm infected with H5N2 and ordered a 24-hour guard to monitor trucks and people entering and leaving the site and block unauthorized access.
Arkansas livestock inspectors are also going door-to-door to nearly 1,900 properties within the quarantine zone to search for backyard flocks that could potentially be infected.
Brandon Doss, Arkansas’ assistant state veterinarian, added that the state is working with the USDA to create new rules for commercial poultry producers and owners of backyard flocks alike.
The rules will state how often poultry within a quarantine zone must test negative for bird flu before the quarantine can be lifted.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers the risk to people from highly pathogenic flu infections in wild birds and poultry to be low.
