News

H7N8 is the first in a commercial operation since the 1920’s

The Indiana Board of Animal Health (BOAH) says the new strain of avian influenza identified last week in Southwest Indiana is very unique to the commercial poultry industry.

Indiana state veterinarian Dr. Bret Marsh says, “Highly pathogenic H7N8 hasn’t been diagnosed in a commercial poultry operation since the 1920’s – so it is an unusual finding.”

He tells Brownfield the H7N8 strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza is common in wild waterfowl – like ducks.  “We have testing that is ongoing through our department of natural resources – looking for this virus that may be in the wild waterfowl,” he says.  “How it actually entered these particular buildings and how it spread from there – we have epidemiologist in place trying to figure out how this is moved.”

Since last Friday, the agency has identified 10 cases of H7N8 avian influenza.   “One of which is highly pathogenic and the other nine are what we call low pathogenic,” he says.  “We are aggressively depopulating and moving quickly to get these sites depopulated so we don’t have spread of these viruses into the community.”

BOAH says aggressive testing continues to control the outbreak of the virus.  In the last 24 hours more than 110 commercial farms have tested negative for influenza – 62 in the original control area and 52 in the recently added surveillance zone.