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Nebraska Gov. Pillen on USDA’s HPAI plan

Nebraska Governor and licensed veterinarian Jim Pillen says when it comes to addressing Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in poultry, he has two beliefs – the virus always wins in a naïve population of people, birds or mammals, and “there’s no effective vaccine.”

He tells Brownfield that’s because a vaccine doesn’t provide 100% coverage for the virus.

“When the virus is alive, when shedding, it then has the ability to replicate, create new strains and become more pathogenic, more virulent and that’s the risk where it can transmit and infect people.”

Pillen has provided feedback to USDA on the new, 5-step plan to deal with HPAI in poultry and turkeys. Overall, Pillen says he’s supportive, but if U.S. egg production is going to recover long-term, depopulation of an entire HPAI-infected poultry farm is necessary.

“The farm is a population. One barn isn’t a population,” he says. “Some believe if you have a farm with four barns, it’s four populations. My belief, and I have tons of data, at least within the pig industry, that the farm is a population, not the barn.”

He says it’s also important to repopulate flocks as soon as possible and implement biosecurity. But in the short-term, Pillen says importing eggs from other countries can help lower egg prices.

Nebraska’s last confirmed case of HPAI in poultry was in a backyard flock early March.

Influenza A hasn’t been confirmed in livestock in the state. Through the end of May, the Nebraska Ag Department will require all breeding female dairy cattle coming into the state to get a permit issued by the ag department prior to entry.

The USDA says they are meeting regularly with stakeholders to discuss the 5-step HPAI plan.