NCC President Mike Brown and Senior Vice President of Scientific and Regulatory Affairs Ashley Peterson, Ph.D. this week attended a conference, “Avian Influenza Outbreak…Lessons Learned,” to help the broiler industry better prepare for potential future exposure to Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza. The conference was held Tuesday and Wednesday in Des Moines.
The conference agenda was developed through the collaboration of the U.S. Poultry & Egg Association, National Chicken Council, National Turkey Federation, United Egg Producers, USA Poultry & Egg Export Council and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The conference addressed the following topics:
- H5N2 Outbreak: Where Are We… Where Are We Going?
- HPAI Epidemiological Investigations: Biosecurity’s Role in Disease Prevention
- Industry Biosecurity Challenges
- Accountability for Biosecurity
- Indemnity Process and Procedures
- Communication: Effective Customer Communications, State Agencies, and Federal Agency Stakeholder Communication
- Producer Panel: Lessons Learned
- Research Update Panel: Vaccination, Epidemiology of the Virus, and Disease Transmission
- Biosecurity for Feed
- After the Outbreak: Disposal and Depopulation Methods, Cleaning and Disinfecting, and Re-Population
- Gaps and Opportunities – Open Discussion
- Actions Items for the Fall Season
- Impact on Trade: Implication of Response Activities on Trade, Interstate Poultry Movement, and International
Iowa Governor Terry Branstad and USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack both spoke at the conference in the portion that was available to the media.
“The concern is what happens when the temperatures go down and we have duck and geese migrations in the fall,” Branstad was quoted as saying. “There’s the potential for this again. We want to be as prepared as we can and do everything we can from a biosecurity perspective to avoid it reoccurring and having it spread like it did this spring.”
