State of emergency declared in Minnesota over bird flu

The contagious strain of avian flu forced Minnesota to declare a state of emergency on Thursday, following in the footsteps of Wisconsin.

The recent bird flu outbreak has lead to the culling of as many as 7.3 million birds across the country.

Around 46 farms located in 16 counties across Minnesota have been reported to be infected by the highly contagious H5N2 strain of bird flu, that has affected more than 2.6 million birds in the state, reported Reuters.

Under the emergency, the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (HSEM) will activate the Minnesota Emergency Operations Plan to support the Minnesota Board of Animal Health and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture’s efforts to contain the flu and to coordinate response efforts across all agencies of state government.

While no humans have been reportedly infected, state health officials have said they were in the process of expediting prescriptions for the antiviral drug Tamiflu for farm workers and others who have been in direct contact with infected flocks.

Reuters quoted Minnesota health department’s spokesperson Michael Schommer as saying that the state’s health department had approached almost 140 farm workers, and others who had been in direct contact with infected birds, and advised around 87 of them to take the Roche antiviral medication as a preventative measure.

This year’s bird flu outbreak has seen two strains of the virus, H5N2 and H5N8.

While the H5N2 strain has been found in Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Washington and Wisconsin, along with farms in Ontario, Canada, the H5N8 strain was found in California and Idaho.

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Image: the spread of bird flue has affected about 7.3 million birds across the US. Photo: courtesy of foto76/freedigitalimages.net.