The State Board of Animal Health extended their suspension of all shows, public sales, swaps, and exhibitions of poultry and other birds because there continues to be wild bird and poultry infections of the bird flu detected across the state. Deputy State Veterinarian Dr. Beth Carlson says they don’t know when the ban can be lifted.
"It's just really dependant on what kind of transmission we continue to see. We've had high path avian influenza in the past, but that year, transmission from wildlife seemed to be less of a dominant form of transmission. This time it seems to be the primary route. We had hoped that things would quiet down after the bird migration was complete, unfortunately some of our surrounding states have continued to see cases here and there. Our last case has been a few weeks but we're still receiving reports that we are investigating of birds being sick or dying."
The topic will be reviewed again at the board’s September 7th meeting.