March 4, 2004

 

USDA Says Texas Bird Flu Under Control

 

USDA officials have pronounced the outbreak of a virulent strain of bird flu in Texas to be successfully contained by state and federal officials.

 

USDA undersecretary Bill Hawks told reporters surveillance and testing of poultry farms within 5 miles of the infected flock have not been infected with bird flu. State officials are now testing farms within a 10-mile radius.

 

"It appears to be that we've contained it," Hawks said at a national conference of U.S. soybean and corn producers.

 

The bird flu found on a farm about 50 miles from San Antonio, Texas, is a different strain from the one blamed for the recent deaths of at least 22 people in Asia.

 

Russia, the European Union and several Asian nations cut off all U.S. poultry exports because the Texas case involves a highly pathogenic form of avian influenza to birds. The strain is not believed harmful to humans, although federal health officials were monitoring the health of workers on the Texas farm.

 

Last week, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said she hoped to persuade other nations to soon resume U.S. poultry exports. The USDA is holding talks with trading partners to convince them to reduce their poultry sanctions to specific U.S. states or regions, if not remove them entirely.

 

"In a situation like this, you try to make sure that you got this contained and then you make your argument to our trading partners," Hawks said.

 

The European Commission imposed a one-month ban on all U.S. poultry shipments, while Mexico expanded an earlier ban on poultry from 10 states to apply to the entire United States. Big U.S. poultry buyers Japan, South Korea and China have also announced similar bans.

 

The United States exported $2.1 billion in poultry products last year.

 

Hawks said the H5N2 strain found in Texas was unique because it hasn't killed as many birds as past outbreaks.

 

The last time a highly pathogenic strain of bird flu was found in the United States was in 1984. More than 17 million birds were killed at a cost of $65 million, the USDA said.

 

Texas officials have so far killed 6,600 birds.