Ohio is better prepared for future bird flu outbreaks after curbing the most recent epidemic of highly pathogenic avian influenza that started last December. That’s according to Jim Chakeres, executive vice president of the Ohio Poultry Association.
The Ohio Department of Agriculture says producers in the state destroyed more than 15 million birds in the latest outbreak, and at one point, Ohio had the most cases of bird flu in the country.
Chakeres said Ohio currently has 35 to 36 million commercial egg-laying hens. Prior to the outbreak, full production was closer to 42 million. (These numbers do not necessarily include smaller farms and facilities.)
At the height of the outbreak in February, the U.S. Department of Agriculture launched a billion dollar, five-pronged response.
Chakeres said that plan includes reducing regulations on chicken and egg producers, exploring vaccine opportunities and looking at temporary import-export options.
“We are looking at obviously enhanced biosecurity, wildlife mitigation and what that looks like. We are looking at programs to assist the farms,” he said.
The last reported detection of the virus in Ohio was on April 14. While a new outbreak could happen in the future, Chakeres said they have “put a bookend” on this outbreak.
"The industry and the producers, the farmers in Ohio remain vigilant in protecting their flocks through many different biosecurity measures," he said. "And so we're all still on a heightened awareness, if you will.”
As the outbreak has halted among egg producers, egg prices have also seen a drop. The USDA reported on Aug. 22 that white shell, conventional-caged eggs at major retail supermarkets averaged at around $2.43 a carton in the U.S. — a steep drop from a reported peak cost of $8.17 in March.
Egg prices in Ohio follow a similar trend: The cost of eggs peaked in March and have dropped about a third since then, according to data from Datasembly, a website that measures weekly changes in pricing for grocery products.
Chakeres declined to disclose the economic impact of the outbreak on producers, saying it varied farm to farm.
"And every farm may be different because each farm is set up differently," he said. "The response to that, any type of financial assistance is going to be different. And so in terms of what their system is like, what their cleanup is, a lot of different factors go into that."
Ohio is continuing to work with the USDA to make facilities “less desirable” for influenza-carrying, migratory birds that could cause future outbreaks.
"We have a lot of different mitigation programs in place to try to prevent wild birds from deciding that this is an attractive area to land or in certain instances to even fly over," Chakeres said.
USDA workers are helping conduct "assessments on each individual farm when the farm requests them,” to provide personalized guidance for wild bird mitigation.
Bird flu is not a one-time risk for any producer in the United States. Chakeres said the threat of a new outbreak arises each migration season.
"We also saw a few flocks in the fall of 2022. The spread of this disease can be traced to wild birds, primarily migratory waterfowl," he said. "And so as those birds are migrating in the spring and fall, that kind of tends to [provide] that increased opportunity when those birds are overhead for the introduction of the disease."
Sanitation efforts are a major part of changes being made in the state to prevent further outbreaks. Chakeres said a lot of farms are now set up with shower in and shower out facilities to protect birds.
"I know the farms have been working diligently and investing millions of dollars in changing practices and building new solutions to prevent the introduction of any type of foreign animal disease," he said.
According to the USDA, these additional safety measures can be tied to reduced flu cases at participating facilities, stating that the approximately 150 facilities that follow these protocols have only ever reported one outbreak.
Chakeres said while it is very difficult to contract bird flu from consuming any poultry products, he suggests people continue to use food safety measures to reduce any chance of illness.
"If a consumer has any concern — thoroughly cook your food and handle it properly, put it back in the refrigerator, and you're gonna greatly reduce any risk of any foodborne illness," he said.
WYSO reached out to the ODA to ask if the agency considers the outbreak to be over. In a written response, Bryan Levin, a public information officer for the ODA, said, "there is currently no regulatory oversight by [Ohio Department of Agriculture’s] Division of Animal Health on sites that had HPAI [highly pathogenic avian influenza].”
