The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) today (Friday), has confirmed the presence of highly pathogenic H5N2 avian influenza (HPAI) in four additional flocks in Minnesota and Iowa. No human infections with the virus have been detected at this time. CDC considers the risk to people from these HPAI H5 infections in wild birds, backyard flocks and commercial poultry, to be low.

USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories confirmed HPAI H5N2 in two Minnesota Counties, and two in Iowa, including Adair County, where 974,500 chickens are affected at the Rose Acre Farms facility near Stuart.

The affected premises have been quarantined and birds on the property will be depopulated to prevent the spread of the disease. Birds from the flock will not enter the food system.

According to USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, in 2014, the U.S. poultry industry produced 8.54 billion broiler chickens, 99.8 billion eggs, and 238 million turkeys. Officials say the United States has the strongest AI surveillance program in the world. As part of the existing USDA avian influenza response plans, Federal and State partners as well as industry are responding quickly and decisively to these outbreaks by following these five basic steps:

1) Quarantine – restricting movement of poultry and poultry-moving equipment into and out of the control area;

2) Eradicate – humanely euthanizing the affected flock(s);

3) Monitor region – testing wild and domestic birds in a broad area around the quarantine area;

4) Disinfect – kills the virus in the affected flock locations; and

5) Test – confirming that the poultry farm is AI virus-free. USDA also is working with its partners to actively look and test for the disease in commercial poultry operations, live bird markets and in migratory wild bird populations.

A report recently released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows there are plenty of jobs in ag-related fields, but not enough college graduates to fill them. Krysta Harden is Deputy Secretary of Agriculture. “Folks don’t really realize the variety of jobs and the availability of the jobs in science and technology, in education, in communication, food production, all the way through the entire chain, frankly,” Harden says.

The report from the USDA and Purdue University states there are nearly 60,000 ag related job openings expected annually in the U.S., but only a little over 35,000 graduates available to fill them. Sonny Ramaswamy, director of the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, says that means there are some great opportunities for recent college graduates.  “For some majors like agribusiness, animal science, crop science, the young people are being offered two to three job offers and signing bonuses,” Ramaswamy says.

The report projects almost half of the ag job opportunities in the next five years will be in management and business. Another 27 percent will be in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) areas. According to the report, more than half the grads in agriculture and ag-related fields are women.

(Radio Iowa)