DES MOINES, Iowa – As the poultry industry in Iowa and across the Midwest works to rebound from the spring outbreak of avian influenza, there are predictions that another round of the disease will hit this fall.

Dale Wiehoff, director of communications for the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, says while it’s still unclear how the disease became so widespread, he notes that avian influenza will likely become a permanent part of industrial poultry production. “The model of industrial poultry production that we have confines thousands of birds together that have the same genetic makeup, getting the same food and the same water,” he explains. “So it is really ripe for the spread of disease once it gets inside a facility.”

Nearly 50 million chickens and turkeys in the U.S. were lost in the spring outbreak of the H5N2 strain of avian influenza, including around 32 million in Iowa alone. With that unprecedented number of dead birds, Wiehoff says there needs to be a serious review of the safety of the methods of disposal, including incineration, burial and composting.

“The risk is if all of the virus isn’t killed in the compost process, it could be just spread out on the field and contaminating and infecting other birds,” he points out. “And worse, the possibility of the virus mutating and spreading to humans and other animals.”

Wiehoff says the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal Plant Health Inspection Service just launched a review of how to handle the carcasses from any future outbreaks, which could include prearranged disposal sites.

(Iowa News Service)

The lake for which the southwest Iowa town of Carter Lake is named has become a useless body of water, according to the town’s mayor and he blames the Iowa D-N-R for the mess. Several years back, the agency spent almost six-million dollars to remove algae from the lake but the newly-clear water allowed plants to grow on the lake bottom, plants that now clog boat propellors. Mayor Gerald Waltrip is upset.

“My complaint is, you can’t use the lake, most people can’t use it,” Mayor Waltrip says. “Where I live, I have not had my boat in the water for…this is the fifth summer because of the seaweed around my dock area.” He says those who attempt to take their boats out on the lake do so at the risk of burning up their motors by getting the props tangled in the lake’s forest of weeds.

“Fishermen don’t even use it,” Waltrip says. “I used to have ten boats every day from 3:30 in the afternoon until dark with fishermen all the time. They loved it and they can’t do it anymore.” In trying to wipe out the algae — and a bad stench — he says the D-N-R may have done its job too well. Visitors can now see the bottom of the lake and the sun shines through the water, which caused the abundance of plants to grow.

“I’m not going to disagree that they didn’t make it cleaner or more clear,” Waltrip says, “but now, you’re to a point where 90% of the people that used to use the lake can’t use it.” Carter Lake, a town of about 38-hundred people, has two underwater vegetation harvesters but operating them is expensive. The situation is impacting the Carter Lake Ski Club, which is losing members and spending more money on weed control by its docks.

D-N-R officials say the lake is now good for fish and the main concern is water quality. The D-N-R says Carter Lake is evolving and the problem will eventually solve itself.

(Radio Iowa)