ND Department of Agriculture Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE OCTOBER 3, 2006

AVIAN INFLUENZA SURVEILLANCE UNDERWAY IN STATE

BISMARCK – Farmers and ranchers with poultry or other domestic birds are urged to participate in a federally-funded surveillance program for avian influenza (AI), now underway in North Dakota.

“This is an animal health matter,” said the state veterinarian, Dr. Susan Keller. “We are asking producers to voluntarily submit their flocks for testing, as a means of preventing or slowing the spread of avian influenza among domestic and wild birds.”

Alison Schwarting, a veterinary assistant from rural Bismarck, has been hired to conduct the surveillance. Schwarting swabs the trachea of each bird, and then forwards the swabs to the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at North Dakota State University in Fargo.

Schwarting has taken between 500 and 600 samples, mostly from pheasants, so far. Results from the diagnostic laboratory are pending. The program will continue until funding is exhausted.

Keller’s office has contacted veterinarians, county extension agents and owners of game farms, seeking producers to participate in the program. Turkey farms, located mainly in southeastern North Dakota, are the state’s only significant commercial poultry producers.

Producers who want to have their birds tested should call Keller’s office at (701) 328-2655. There is no charge for the testing.

“It is not uncommon to find various low pathogenic strains of AI in this country,” Keller said. “The objective of this surveillance program is to monitor birds for AI to enable us to respond more rapidly to an outbreak.”

Keller said similar surveillance programs are being conducted in most other states through cooperative agreements with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA-APHIS).

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MEDIA: For more information, please contact Ted Quanrud at (701) 328-2233 or tquanrud@nd.gov.