The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) approved a request by the Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) to lift a regional quarantine in Lane County. ODA first executed the quarantine on May 17 after confirming highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in a backyard flock. HPAI is an infectious and deadly disease in birds.
Due to federal and international disease control requirements, after a confirmed case of HPAI in a poultry flock, a regional quarantine for all avian species and vehicle traffic involved with avian species (under the authority of (ORS 596.402) must be issued for an area extending a minimum of 10 kilometers around the infected property. The purpose of the quarantine is to prevent the movement of poultry from within the affected area giving state and federal officials time to conduct surveillance to ensure no additional cases of HPAI exist. The quarantine also applies to importing all birds from states where a state or federal quarantine is in place.
To be eligible for a quarantine release, the USDA required ODA to complete two rounds of surveillance in the affected area, with a minimum of 14 days between, starting after the completion of the humane euthanasia and disposal of the infected birds. ODA completed the work in 20 days following strict biosecurity practices. Biosecurity is a set of practices designed to reduce the risk of spreading disease from sick birds and birds carrying the virus to healthy ones.
If you have domesticated backyard birds such as poultry, please increase your biosecurity and keep your birds separated from wild birds, especially waterfowl. The risk of HPAI to human health is low, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
