INDIANAPOLIS—Animal health officials monitoring the bird-flu outbreak in southwestern Indiana say they will lift most restrictions in two weeks if ongoing testing finds no additional infections.
The last positive bird-flu case in Dubois County—Indiana’s top turkey-producing county that’s about 70 miles west of Louisville, Kentucky—came on January 16.
If no additional cases of the H7N8 strain are found, testing and surveillance of commercial poultry farms will end on February 22 within a 12.4-mile radius around the first turkey farm where the virus was detected, State Board of Animal Health Spokesman Denise Derrer said Monday.
That means poultry producers in that area would no longer need permits to ship their birds or eggs, and also won’t have their products to test negative for the virus within 24 hours of shipment.
But quarantines will remain on the 10 farms where more than 414,000 turkeys and chickens were euthanized last month to help contain the outbreak. Once those carcasses are composted to destroy the virus, the livestock buildings must be sterilized and declared virus-free. Viral testing continues and 100 backyard flocks will undergo a second round of tests this week.