July 4, 2022

Minnesota, US ends poultry exhibition ban

The Board of Animal Health in Minnesota, the United States, has released its temporary poultry exhibition ban, which started on July 1.

Animal health officials had originally put the ban in effect April and extended it twice to reduce the potential risks of spreading highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). The ban included all poultry events where live poultry and susceptible birds were brought together and then dispersed.

"We feel HPAI cases have slowed enough to allow poultry events to resume in Minnesota," said Board of Animal Health interim state veterinarian Dr. Linda Glaser. "We appreciate the patience and cooperation from everyone affected as we temporarily restricted these events to address the HPAI outbreak in our state."

While there haven't been any new HPAI detections in Minnesota's domestic poultry for the past month, there are still occasional detection of HPAI in wild birds, which means the virus is still in the environment and poses a risk to bird owners.

- WEAU