South Dakota turkey and chicken producers hit by high path avian influenza earlier this year are back in business, and hoping to avoid a rerun. South Dakota State Veterinarian Dr. Dustin Oedekoven says all of the operations have had quarantines lifted and have repopulated…
He says surveillance of wild bird populations is ongoing by state and federal agencies with a goal of taking forty thousand samples nationwide…
Oedekoven says while the bird flu virus has not returned, the poultry industry is not totally safe either in the Midwest, or in the eastern flyway where the broiler industry is concentrated…
He says there is a possibility a new strain would not be as damaging as the virus that swept the region last winter and spring. Millions of turkeys and chickens had to be destroyed in an attempt to stop the virus.