In a brief stop in Wright County on Monday afternoon, Senator Joni Ernst met with some poultry representatives to discuss Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI). The stop was part of Ernst’s annual 99 county tour though the event was not open to the general public.
The meeting was planned to include “egg producers.” In all, only eight people were present at the meeting held at Clarion City Hall and this included two Ernst staff members, a Clarion police officer, the Monitor, and the Wright County Economic Development Director. Only two poultry representatives attended. These were Craig Rowles, Director of Cage Free Operations with Versova and Kevin Stiles, CEO & Executive Director of the Iowa Poultry Association.
As of early this week, a total of 15 bird flu outbreaks have been confirmed throughout Iowa, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. None of these outbreaks have been recorded in Wright County.
Rowles and Stiles discussed their current concerns surrounding the avian flu. Rowles said the high pathogenic version of the flu virus has the potential to kill more birds. “It’s different than it was in 2015,” he said. “Transmission from wild birds is happening differently. Even with enhanced biosecurity, it can be a struggle to control it.”
He added though that “lessons have been learned” from 2015’s avian flu outbreaks. Rowles feels like they are in a much better position with federal, state and local resources in place now. Stiles agreed. “Things that took a week or more in 2015 are happening in a day now,” he said. He expects that coming out of this round of avian flu, the industry will learn even more and be better prepared.
For her part, Ernst took notes. She discussed her concerns about the additional stress that this will put on the nation’s food system. Ernst said that there are federal resources in place to help poultry producers. She added that as they work on the next Farm Bill, as a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, she will push for continued research and development to make sure there are research dollars for prevention in place and funding for national labs.
“With the outbreak in 2015, so many groups came together and talked through the struggles,” stated Ernst. “We’re well-positioned right now to respond to outbreaks, but we can’t take anything for granted.”
The group also talked about the need for labor and problems maintaining a workforce. Ernst folded that topic into immigration and her frustration with the situation at the southern border. “We would love to move forward with reasonable legislation regarding immigration, but there’s no border anymore, so there’s no point to it.”
After fifteen minutes of light discussion, the staffers asked everyone besides the two poultry representatives to leave so they could have a closed meeting.
