Poultry farmers across the Upper Midwest are bracing for a potentially deadly disease spread by wild birds. U of M experts are providing insight and guidance.
By Greg Breining, Minnesota Alumni Magazine
This spring, as Minnesotans anticipated a respite from Covid-19, another epidemic crept into the state.
The disease, called highly pathogenic avian influenza, is a descendant of the virus that infected poultry flocks in 2015 and “devastated the Upper Midwest,” says Carol Cardona, D.V.M., professor and Pomeroy Endowed Chair in Avian Health in the U of M’s College of Veterinary Medicine. The 2015 outbreak infected more than 200 com- mercial flocks and caused the death of more than 50 million birds from the Mississippi to the West Coast.
Will 2022 be a repeat? Or will lessons learned limit the damage? The stakes are high—for individual farmers and the state’s poultry industry as a whole. For turkeys and chickens, especially, the virus is nearly always fatal. Once infection is detected, the flock is doomed.
Read the Full Article in the Minnesota Alumni Digital Magazine