Over the past few days, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has confirmed new outbreaks of H5N1 avian influenza in poultry in eight states, including the first on a commercial farm in Georgia.
Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and USDA announced new measures on January 17 to strengthen the safety of raw pet foods, following recent reports of H5N1 virus infections. in domestic cats.
Georgia outbreak leads to ban on poultry shows
The latest confirmation of a poultry outbreak from the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) includes a detection in Georgia at a broiler farm housing 45,500 birds in Elbert County, located in the northeast of the state.
State Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper said the outbreak was the first on a Georgia commercial farm since the H5N1 virus began circulating in U.S. poultry in 2022.
“This is a serious threat to Georgia’s No. 1 industry and to the livelihoods of thousands of Georgians who make a living from our state’s poultry industry,” he said in a statement from January 17. “We are working around the clock to mitigate any further spread of the disease and ensure that normal poultry operations in Georgia can resume as quickly as possible.”
As part of their response, Georgian authorities announced the same day a ban on poultry exhibitions, which include the sale of live birds at markets and other gatherings featuring live birds.
APHIS has confirmed more H5N1 detections in other states, primarily involving commercial farms. These include turkey and egg laying farms in Indiana, a duck meat farm in New York, laying hen flocks in Ohio, a laying hen farm in California, a broiler farm in Maryland and a turkey farm in Minnesota.
Additionally, APHIS confirmed a detection in a backyard flock of 30 birds in Greene County, Tennessee.
Since first detection in poultry in the United States in early 2022, H5N1 outbreaks have resulted in the loss of a record 138.7 million birds across 50 states and Puerto Rico.
At the same time, APHIS confirmed a new detection of the H5N1 virus in a dairy herd, another in California, bringing the national total to 929 and California’s total to 712.
Steps to Strengthen Raw Pet Food Safety
On January 17, the FDA said it was tracking cases of H5N1 in domestic and feral cats in California, Colorado, Oregon and Washington state linked to consumption of contaminated food products.
He noted that scientific findings are evolving, but current evidence suggests that H5N1 can be transmitted to cats and dogs when they eat products from infected poultry or cattle, such as unpasteurized milk, uncooked meat. cooked and unpasteurized eggs.
In its statement, the FDA said that manufacturers of pet foods that are covered by the Food Safety Modernization Act’s Preventive Animal Food Control (PCAF) rule and that use meat, milk or raw eggs must reanalyze their food safety plans to include H5N1 as an ingredient. known or foreseeable danger.
Relatedly, APHIS announced Jan. 17 that it is updating its pre-slaughter surveillance policy for turkeys, which will improve testing of flocks in affected states.
The agency added that it became aware in late December of a genetic link between turkeys potentially infected with H5N1, the virus detected in raw pet food, and an infected domestic cat.
Enhanced surveillance will include isolation, clinical monitoring and testing 72 hours before slaughter. APHIS said it will pilot the program, starting with farms with 500 or more turkeys in Minnesota and South Dakota. Both states had infected cats and were hit by outbreaks on turkey farms.
