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Commentary
Fujian H5N2 In Minnesota Turkeys Linked To
Missouri?
Recombinomics Commentary
March 9, 2015 22:15
MDA is awaiting confirmation on an additional specimen from Fortuna.Commercial turkey breeding replacement flock.
The premises consists of two barns with 18 week old breeder replacement turkey hens. One barn contained approximately 15,000 birds with high mortality and the other barn of approximately 6,500 birds has not shown any increased mortality.
The above comments (in red) from the March 8 press release from the Missouri Department of Agriculture describe lab confirmation of avian influenza (media reports cite H5N2) at two turkey facilities in southwest and central Missouri. One site (a turkey grower facility in Asbury) has been confirmed by the APHIS lab in Iowa, while the second site has tested positive locally and is awaiting confirmation in Iowa.
Lab conirmation in these two facilities in Missouri follow the confirmation of H5N2 in a turkey breeding replacement flock in Minnesota, as described above (in blue) in the March 6 OIE report (released today).
The description of this farm and location in Pope County matches a Starbuck farm described in a 2013 Compassion Over Killing press release which sold eggs to the largest hatchery in the US (in Willmar – see H5N2 map). However, the size of the layer farm raises the possibility that they have additional customers in farms such as the two described in Missouri, suggesting of an epidemiological link.
The Minnesota turkey farm was confirmed March 4 by APHIS and was the first H5N2 commercial farm in the United States. The lab confirmation of two more turkey farms a few days later, including at least one grower facility, suggests a common source, and since all three farms involve turkeys, a linkage appears likely.
This link is also supported by the locations of the two lab confirmed farms in Missouri. The Asbury farm is near Carthage, where Butterball has a turkey processing center, while the Fortuna farm is near California, where Cargill has a turkey processing plant.
These associations suggest these two farms are not linked to each other, but may be epidemiologically linked to the Minnesota turkey replacement flock.
Detail on the relationships between the three farms would be useul.
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