The Iowa Department of Agriculture released the last commercial Iowa poultry farm from highly pathogenic avian influenza quarantine restrictions.
Those restrictions prohibited moving poultry or poultry products on or off the affected premises and were lifted after the farm cleared all of the testing protocols and quarantine requirements.
“This important milestone allows impacted farmers to turn the page from responding to the outbreak to repopulating flocks and returning to turkey and poultry production,” says Iowa Ag Secretary Mike Naig.
“Moving forward, we’ll work with our partners to assess this year’s response to ensure that we’re even more prepared for any potential disease challenges in the future.”
Gretta Irwin, executive director of the Iowa Turkey Association, says lifting the last commercial site quarantined in Iowa is great news. “In 2022, we had nine HPAI turkey cases instead of the 71 in 2015, which shows how far we’ve come in battling the disease,” she says.