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Sorry - this page has been removed. Third poultry quarantine in Washington state as avian flu infects more birds
(4 months later)
This could be because it launched early, our rights have expired, there was a legal issue, or for another reason. The state of Washington said on Tuesday that it has established a third poultry quarantine after officials discovered that a flock of about 100 birds in Okanogan County was infected with the avian influenza virus.
The Washington state department of agriculture adopted an emergency rule on Sunday to establish the new quarantine zone, which encompasses a six-mile area in Oroville, Washington, state officials said.
For further information, please contact: State officials are conducting additional tests to identify the specific flu strain that infected the flock. About half of the 100 birds have died, according to agriculture officials.
The quarantine restricts all eggs, poultry and poultry products from being taken beyond its perimeter.
The state set up the first emergency quarantine in the area on 29 January, after a flock of nearly 5,000 birds tested positive for the H5N2 influenza strain. Another quarantine zone was also set up in Clallam County, Washington, in response to a separate infected flock.
The US Department of Agriculture said at the time that the virus did not pose a health risk to the public, and that birds and other poultry products from such infected flocks would not enter the food system.
Regardless, in the past month China has banned all imports of US poultry products and eggs following the discovery of avian influenza in the US Pacific north-west, the USDA said. All poultry shipped to China after 8 January was to be returned or destroyed.
The virus is extremely contagious among poultry and can spread rapidly through a flock, killing birds in as little as 48 hours. The H5N2 strain has also been found in backyard chicken flocks in Idaho.
A different strain, H5N8, forced a temporary quarantine of a Foster Farms turkey ranch in California last month, with the birds destroyed to prevent the spread of the disease to migratory and commercial flocks.