3-8 NWR Avian Influenza Contained

This is your Northwest report for Wednesday, March 8 I'm David Sparks and we have learned that the immediate threat of the avian influenza outbreak that occurred in Tennessee and Wisconsin may have been contained. I talked with Idaho State Department of Agriculture veterinarian Dr. Debra Lawrence. "What do you know about this avian influenza? It supposedly started in Tennessee. I am hearing it might be contained. They had one Tyson barn and they depopulated 70,000 chickens. At the same time there were some turkeys in Wisconsin. Same deal. They got rid of them all. I listened to a conference call yesterday with all the big dogs from the USDA and a bunch of producers and veterinary services people and they have hold orders on surrounding farms and they are doing monitoring testing. Are we at risk here in the Northwest? No more than we have been all along, we are keeping our eyes peeled. It pretty much depends on people keeping good bio security."

In related news and reported by agri-pulse.com , South Korea, a major poultry and egg importer, has closed its market to the U.S. in the wake of the new detection of highly pathogenic bird flu according to U.S. and Korean officials.

South Korea had no choice but to ban all U.S. poultry and eggs because the two governments have not finalized a regionalization deal that would lessen the impact of disease detections, a Korean government official told Agri-Pulse today. A USDA spokeswoman confirmed the action by South Korea.