Two More Poultry Farms Show Bird Flu Signs, Disposal Proving Difficult

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa agriculture officials say two additional commercial poultry farms show signs of the presence of bird flu.

A chicken farm in Osceola County with 100,000 birds and a turkey farm in Cherokee County are the latest additions to the list of farms testing positive for the H5N2 virus. The number of turkeys wasn’t immediately released by the Iowa Department of Agriculture.

Osceola County now has three cases and Cherokee County totals four.

They raise Iowa’s total number to 37 cases in 11 counties.

More than 21 million of Iowa’s chickens will be affected if the latest cases are confirmed. The number of turkeys to be lost is approaching 500,000.

More than 100 farms in the Midwest have the bird flu virus with more than 28 million birds affected.

Disposal of those birds is proving difficult as millions of dead chickens and turkeys lie in stinking, fly-swarmed piles near dozens of large Iowa farms due to the H5N2 bird flu virus.

Neighbors say they understand the challenge in disposing of more than 20 million bird carcasses, but are eager for quick action, especially as temperatures rise and create more decomposition odor and flies.

Iowa Department of Natural Resources environmental supervisor Ken Hessenius says the state must look at “all methods of disposal” and called the virus a “crisis.”

Some of the birds are piled up and covered with dirt or other material, turkeys are often composted inside barns and at least one chicken farm is burying them in trenches. Portable incinerators have been set up and state officials are working with landfills.