Turkey farms with a predominant inhabitants of toms might be extra prone for a extremely pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) an infection than these with out toms, in accordance with a research from america Division of Agriculture (USDA).
Victoria Fields, DVM, USDA Nationwide Animal Well being Monitoring System poultry specialist, offered knowledge that might again up that concept whereas talking on the Worldwide Avian Influenza Summit on October 17 in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Fields mentioned the research concerned the cooperation of 125 industrial turkey farms in 12 states. Of these, 66 had been case farms and 59 had been management farms. Fields outlined case farms as those who had a optimistic HPAI detection from January to October 2022, and management farms had been those that didn’t have any confirmed circumstances throughout that very same time span.
That research revealed a robust presence of toms in 86.4% of the case farms that had been contaminated, however solely 67.8% of the uninfected management farms had toms there.
One cause farms with toms might be extra prone, Fields mentioned, is that the age of birds has been proven to extend susceptibility to HPAI, and the expansion cycle of toms is usually a number of weeks longer than the expansion cycle for hens. She additionally mentioned that as a result of toms spend extra time on the farm, they’ve additional publicity to fomites corresponding to farm personnel and automobiles that may assist unfold the virus.
Fields additionally famous that manufacturing practices might differ throughout these additional weeks that toms are on the farm, and that might play a issue for the danger of an HPAI an infection.
Fields mentioned the obvious elevated danger for farms with toms is good information to have, as a result of “there is likely to be different biosecurity or surveillance measures that may be applied in these circumstances.
The 12 states from which producers collaborating within the research had been from included California, Utah, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. Yard turkey producers and turkey breeding operations weren’t included within the research.
View our persevering with protection of the international avian influenza scenario.
To be taught extra about HPAI circumstances in industrial poultry flocks in america, Mexico and Canada, see an interactive map on WATTPoultry.com.
