ST. PAUL -- The Minnesota turkey and chicken industry has received its first good news since an avian flu outbreak began March 5, and there’s a new idea, too, on how the virus may be spreading.
On Wednesday, state and federal officials reported that no new flocks were reported infected and they were not awaiting test results from any suspected sick birds. The weather forecast for most of the state calls for highs in the upper 60s to the 70s after a short dip into the 50s in some areas later this week. Vaccines could become available to prevent the flu.
It was the first report since April 15 that did not include new flu cases.
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"That is something we are hoping is a trend," State Veterinarian Dr. Bill Hartmann told reporters.
Despite the good news, the hard fact remains that 5.6 million Minnesota turkeys and chickens have died from the virus or are being euthanized to prevent its spread since the first Minnesota flock was reported infected on March 5. Eighty-two Minnesota farms in 21 counties are affected.
Scientists have not yet been able to figure out how the influenza is being spread, but some are worried that it is moving from farm to farm and being carried by the wind.
A recent report based on epidemiological studies of the infections to date could not determine how the disease is being spread, Hartmann said.
However, he said veterinarians working with turkey producers suspect that some "lateral" or farm-to-farm transmission is occurring. They also suspect that winds are possibly carrying the virus.
Hartmann cautioned that the veterinarians are speaking from their "gut feeling,'' and that there is no evidence to confirm this.
The relatively high number of infected farms in Stearns and Kandiyohi counties is one of the reasons that the veterinarians suspect farm-to-farm transmission is occurring, Hartmann said. He also cautioned that these two counties also have the largest number of turkey farms, and that alone may explain the number of infected sites.
Hartmann said there have been cases where a flock in one barn on a multi-barn site has been infected and isolated in hopes that the flocks in the other barns would not need to be euthanized. Despite the effort, the virus has reached the other barns, he said.
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If the winds carry the virus, producers could add filters to barns. That would be very expensive. Consequently, only barns holding breeding birds would likely be outfitted with the filters, Hartmann said.
One reason scientists are looking at other causes is that the original idea that it’s being spread by wild birds is losing steam.
Lou Cornicelli of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources said only one wild bird, a Cooper's hawk, has tested positive for H5N2.
Cornicelli said tests of more than 3,000 samples of wild waterfowl feces came back with no H5N2 positive results. The same is true for wild turkeys that hunters have turned in.
The warmer weather should be good news, Hartmann said, although he could not say why flocks in warmer climates south of Minnesota were reported infected Wednesday. Generally, temperatures staying for several days at or above 65 are considered inhospitable to flu viruses.
Hartmann said scientists are looking into vaccine that could prevent poultry from getting the flu, but more work is needed before doing that. He said that he did not know how it would be administered to birds.
A vaccine should not be expensive, he added, so likely would not add to prices at the store.
However, there is a catch to vaccinations, Agriculture Commissioner Dave Frederickson said. Some countries would not accept vaccinated poultry, not wanting to let in meat of medicated birds.
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Tom Cherveny contributed to this report
