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The Poultry Science Association (PSA) recently debuted Unplucked, its new, original podcast series that seeks to challenge the status quo by going beyond the headlines and industry jargon to tackle conversations about the science, challenges, and breakthroughs shaping the poultry industry.
“Our goal for this podcast is to talk about poultry science in a way where we make the connection from the lab to the barn, from the barn to the supermarket, to the restaurant, or to home-sweet-home in your kitchen,” says Poultry Science Association Executive Director Andy Vance.
Each week will feature a guest who has the technical chops to break down a big issue in a meaningful way. “You’ll walk away with a better understanding of how we can all work together to advance poultry science worldwide,” says Vance.
The debut discussion Flu Fighters: Battling Avian Influenza in the Poultry Industry with Craig Rowles, DVM, general manager of cage-free production at Versova Farms, tackled one of the biggest issues facing the industry over the past couple years: highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI).
With decades of experience in both veterinary medicine and animal agriculture, Dr. Rowles provides a unique perspective on biosecurity, vaccination strategies and lessons learned from other livestock industries.
Discussing avian flu on the podcast, Dr. Rowles says it is important to go back and understand the history of the virus. “There has always been level of low path AI that has been in the wild bird population forever. Occasionally, a low path would get into poultry—oftentimes it would be turkey—and you would see a mutation occur within that turkey farm that would turn into a high path.”
Lateral transmission would occur, and federal authorities and veterinarians would work together to stamp it out. “But things have been changing since then,” Rowles adds.
In 1996, there was a mutation that occurred in wild birds in China allowing HPAI to exist in the wild bird population. It worked its way across the globe, marking its first exposure in the U.S. in 2015. Several outbreaks occurred and the same techniques were utilized, but there were several lessons learned.
“What we learned at that point in time was that the poultry industry really needed to do a better job of beefing up our biosecurity systems.”
The industry made huge investments to try to stop the major transmission of the virus by walking it into a farm. This was mostly successful until 2022, when a resurgence occurred.
“Now, we’re finding out that the virus is more widespread, more endemic in the wild bird population,” says Dr. Rowles. However, this outbreak has been so widespread, it is “overwhelming our tradition biosecurity levels.”
Additionally, the virus has spread to other mammalian species, raising concerns. Despite a race to find answers, no clear answers have been found.
As they look at the genotyping virus, contrary to 2015, instead of being lateral transmission, we’re now seeing more direct introduction of the virus.
The practices implemented in 2015 were effective, but now the virus is so widespread direct introduction is happening.
Dr. Rowles says there is a growing body of belief and evidence that aerosol transmission either through dust particles or through direct aerosol could play a role in virus transfer.
“We’re not really sure yet what more we can do from a biosecurity effort.”
Dr. Rowles says further work needs to be done to better understand the biology of the virus as well as transmission.
The widespread nature of the virus has also brought the topic of vaccines to the forefront, a discussion that has largely been avoided because of potential economic implications. However, Dr. Rowles says the economic damage to the egg industry has been significant. “What we are doing currently is not sustainable for the producer, government or the consumers. “From our perspective, we believe it is time to add another tool to the toolbox, and that means adding vaccines.”
Listen to the full in-depth discussion with Dr. Rowles here.