After testing positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), strain H5N1 in February, the six Indiana flocks are no longer under control area restrictions.
“The control areas surrounding Dubois County sites D1, D2, D3 and D4 have been lifted as of March 23, 2022. Commercial farms in the control areas are no longer under quarantine, weekly and bi–weekly surveillance testing is no longer required and movement permits are eliminated,” read a situation update from the Indiana State Board of Animal Health (BOAH).
However, these four farms will stay under quarantine until the farms have met multiple requirements, including:
- Compost disposal
- Virus elimination
- Environmental sampling for presence of the virus
- A fallow period
As of March 15, the two farms in Greene County were to undergo the same process. In total, there were 171,224 commercial turkeys impacted by this outbreak, which is the first to happen in Indiana since 2016, according to the BOAH.
After the first HPAI case was detected on February 9 at a commercial turkey flock in Dubois County, a series of tests in nearby regions found five more flocks with HPAI:
- On February 15, another Dubois commercial turkey flock where 26,473 birds had to be depopulated
- On February 17, a Greene County turkey flock where 48,000 birds were depopulated
- On February 18, another Greene County flock where 15,400 were depopulated
- On February 22, a Dubois County flock where 35,908 birds were depopulated
- On March 1, another Dubois County flock where 16,479 birds were depopulated
Testing for HPAI in Indiana is conducted by the US Department of Agriculture’s National Veterinary Services Laboratory (NVSL). During this round of surveillance, the NVSL tested both commercial and hobby/backyard flocks – a total of 2,013 tests.
To learn more about HPAI cases in North American commercial poultry flocks, see an interactive map on WATTPoultry.com.
Read our ongoing coverage of the global avian influenza outbreak.
