Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By Kirsti Marohn and Tim Nelson

Federal agriculture officials are sending a team to respond to the latest outbreak of avian influenza in Minnesota, as the state is now reporting two more affected poultry flocks, bringing the total to five.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture emergency response team will arrive in Minnesota on Wednesday, and will be deployed for at least three weeks. It will support the state’s experts from the Minnesota Board of Animal Health and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture.

Their work will involve quarantining infected flocks, disease surveillance and coordinating logistics and finances.

Flocks in Meeker and Mower counties tested positive last week. Authorities now say the deadly strain of avian flu has also been found in a commercial flock of 24,000 turkeys in Stearns County, which will be euthanized.

On Friday, state officials reported that they have confirmed avian flu with flocks in two other counties, 23,000 commercial turkeys in Lac Qui Parle County and 40,000 commercial turkeys in Kandiyohi County, in west-central Minnesota.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently announced that the H5N1 strain of avian influenza is a low risk to the public. No human cases of avian influenza have been detected in the U.S.

But the outbreak represents a serious threat to Minnesota’s turkey industry, with nearly 700 farms that raise about 40 million birds a year, the most of any state.

In 2015, 9 million birds in Minnesota were killed by the virus or euthanized to slow its spread.

Poultry producers in the state had been on high alert for weeks, taking steps to increase biosecurity, after the virus was detected in neighboring states, including Iowa and South Dakota.

This particular virus is a relative of the 2015 strain, a highly pathogenic variant found in wild birds, said Dr. Carol Cardona, a professor of avian health at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine. That’s why the cases are popping up in different areas, not spreading from farm to farm, she said.

“When it infects poultry flocks, they’re quite spread out from each other,” Cardona said. “So we’re sort of seeing sort of popcorning effects. It’s really widespread. If you look at the whole country map of where cases are, it’s just everywhere.”

It also shows that farmers’ biosecurity measures are largely working to keep the virus out of their flocks — or to quickly detect positive cases and depopulate the birds to keep it from spreading elsewhere, Cardona said.

“So we may have lost three battles, but we have probably won another 50,” she said.

Word that avian influenza has been confirmed in Minnesota is grim news for anxious poultry farmers, who have been taking extra biosecurity precautions for the past several months as the virus spread across the U.S.

Lynette Gessell is a turkey grower west of Little Falls, where her family raises light hens for about 13 weeks before selling them for processing.

She said they’re focusing on what they can do within their own flocks to keep the virus at bay — such as assigning employees to specific flocks or farm sites, cleaning frequently, monitoring their flocks for symptoms numerous times a day and reporting any concerns to their veterinarian.

They’re also avoiding roads where waterfowl like to congregate, and routes with high farm-to-farm traffic.

Despite feeling prepared, the constant vigilance and worry take its toll, said Gessell.

“We’re trying to focus on whatever it is that is within our control, and do it to the best of our ability,” she said.

Officials cautioned that the appearance of avian flu in a backyard flock is a key difference from the 2015 outbreak. The Mower County flock included a mix of ducks, chickens and geese.

During Minnesota’s last bout with avian flu in 2015, there were no broiler chickens affected, and egg-laying hens weren’t affected until later in the outbreak, said Dr. Jill Nezworski, a poultry veterinarian and a board member of the Minnesota Turkey Growers Association.

“It’s concerning how right out of the box, this virus is affecting chickens,” she said. “So that tells us that this virus is more adapted to infect chickens.”

Nezworski advises anyone with a backyard flock to keep the birds inside  for the next few weeks, and away from any standing water that might attract waterfowl. They should also avoid trading birds with other flock owners, she said.