Better Serving Producers & Newest Avian Influenza Quarantine

I'm Lacy Gray with Washington Ag Today.

Right now the Farm Service Agency is busy implementing big Farm Bill programs that require special attention to detail and accurate data, and Judy Olson, Washington State Executive Director for the FSA, says that's where MIDAS, or Modernize and Innovate the Delivery of Agricultural Systems, will benefit FSA employees as well as farmers.

OLSON: This overall conversion will have a producer database that will include their current contracts, any of them that are ongoing, their maps, locate where their operation is, their fields; and so one change or one entry - say a new program sign-up will occur, and all of that other information will be current. Their data will be all linked together so there will be a complete profile of them and there will not be so many of these "we have to put this same information in again" in a different form.

Avian influenza has now been detected in a flock of game birds in Okanogan County. The WSDA has established a 6 mile quarantine area around a site in Riverside where the infected birds are located. Similar to previous quarantines this quarantine will restrict the movement of eggs, poultry or poultry products within and out of the quarantine zone. The flock owner contacted the WSDA upon the discovery that 12 turkeys and 40 pheasants had died. A team of veterinarians is visiting other bird owners in the area in order to obtain samples for testing. The WSDA stresses that there is no immediate public health concern due to the avian influenza virus detected, and that avian influenza does not affect poultry meat or egg products, which remain safe to eat.

That's Washington Ag Today.

I'm Lacy Gray with the Ag Information Network of the West.