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Minnesota Turkey Growers pleased with USDA avian flu plan

The Minnesota Turkey Growers Association is pleased with USDA’s plan to address highly pathogenic avian influenza.

Executive director Ashley Kohls says many of the items listed in the department’s five-point strategy have been discussed among the poultry industry for several years.

“Largely since 2015, but it’s refreshing to have the current USDA leadership want to talk about this more broadly within the agency instead of folks just within the poultry industry discussing it.”

She tells Brownfield turkey and poultry producers will benefit from USDA’s biosecurity investments.

“Things like working with U.S. Fish and Wildlife for their biosecurity assessments and other angles, those are all things that the turkey industry in Minnesota has already done. So continuing funding for those programs to expand those programs is definitely welcome.”

Kohls says she’s also looking forward to continued discussion about the use of HPAI vaccines.