Don’t expect to see any live birds at the Iowa State Fair or any county fair this summer.
The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship announced Thursday that it’s ordering the state fair and all county fairs to cancel live bird exhibitions this year as the bird flu outbreak continues to progress.
“We are asking producers and bird owners to increase their biosecurity measures and we feel this is a needed step to further minimize the risk of spreading the virus,” said state Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey in the release. “The scale of this outbreak has been unprecedented, so we think it is important we take every possible step to limit the chance that this disease will spread any further.”
So far, about 25 million birds and over 60 poultry facilities in Iowa have been hit by the bird flu. Ten new cases of the disease on farms showed up in the past week.
