Texas Launches Anti-AI Campaign

AUSTIN - Mar 1/04 - SNS -- Animal health officials in Texas have launched an aggressive campaign to eradicate avian influenza in the state so its poultry producers can once again export their production to Mexico and elsewhere.

Officials started a targeted disease surveillance plan for poultry flocks in and around Gonzales County to ensure that avian influenza (AI) is eradicated from Texas. A flock of nearly 7,000 broiler chickens were destroyed February 21 after the H5N2 strain of AI was confirmed February 19 in several birds from the flock. The H5N2 AI strain has not been shown to cause human disease or to compromise food safety. It is not the same AI strain that has caused disease and death loss in poultry and disease in some persons in more than 10 Asian countries.

AI is a respiratory disease of birds that usually is transmitted by bird-to-bird contact. However, the virus may be in the feces of infected birds, and the disease can be spread to other sites if equipment, boots, clothing or tires are contaminated with infective manure.

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