Agricultural News
Oklahoma Ag Secertary Blayne Arthur- ODAFF was Ready When HPAI Showed Up
Wed, 04 May 2022 05:59:22 CDT
On the sidelines of the 2022 Oklahoma FFA Convention in Tulsa, Oklahoma Farm Report's Ron Hays talked with Oklahoma State Secretary of Ag Blayne Arthur about the announcement this past Sunday of the outbreak of HPAI in a commercial egg laying poultry flock in eastern Oklahoma.
The positive in Sequoyah County was announced by the USDA on Sunday and Dr. Rod Hall and his team quickly reacted. Secretary Arthur says that was because the groundwork had been laid months earlier. "He and his team have been preparing for that response and so when we when we got our first positive in a commercial flock- they went into action standing up that incident management team, working with all of our producers here in the state because our goal certainly is to contain that and manage that situation so that ideally we can lift that quarantine as soon as possible- hope we don't have any spread to other facilties and keep that food supply chain moving."
In an order that began on May first, all poultry exhibition, public sales and swap meets are banned in the state of Oklahoma until further notice in order to halt any potential spread of this virus. The ban is set to end on July 30th, unless evidence shows it should be extended. The order can be found on the ODAFF website- available here.
Flock owners should prevent contact between their birds and wild birds and report sick birds or unusual deaths to state officials. Biosecurity resources and best practices are available at https://ag.ok.gov/disease-alerts. If producers suspect signs of HPAI in their flocks, they should contact their veterinarian immediately. Possible cases should also be reported to the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture at (405) 522-6141.
Nationally, the outbreak of HPAI in 2022 has hit the egg laying flocks across the US very hard- resulting in sharply higher prices for eggs that consumers are seeing at their local grocery stores.
Click on the Listen Bar below to listen to the full conversation between Hays and Ag Secertary Arthur on the HPAI outbreak in Oklahoma and the Department's response.
WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady® NSI
Top Agricultural News
More Headlines...
