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(Radio Iowa) – The confirmation of highly pathogenic avian influenza in a commercial turkey flock in Buena Vista County has increased the anxiety among poultry producers. Morgan Minnehan is a spokesperson for the Iowa Turkey Federation. “It worries us it hurts our stomachs, you know our farmers provide good care for these birds and have the emotional connection with them,” Minnehan says. They remember the devastating bird flu outbreak in 2015 that led to the death of thousands of birds at a cost of one BILLION dollars. Minnehan says prevention measures have stepped up since that outbreak.
“We’re always doing those biosecurity efforts. When we have disease confirmation it’s just a heightened double-checking everything, making sure those biosecurity plans are being implemented times ten. What we learned from 2015 is the faster we get those birds euthanized the less animal suffering we have and the less chances for spreading the disease,” according to Minnehan. Migrating waterfowl bring the bird flu into the state and she says producers keep an eye on a migration tracking program. “It just kind of shows roughly how many birds are in migration during that time and those migration patterns, she explains. “So, always monitoring those and making sure that the line of separation is there on their farms to not bring disease into their barns if it is located outside.”
Minnehan says everyone can help prevent the spread of the bird flu by being aware of what to do. “If you come from a site where there are poultry — or you have a backyard flock yourself — just get familiar with those resources. Get your biosecurity plan implemented and just monitor where you can to just mitigate the spread and help all poultry producers in the state of Iowa,” she says. Minnehan says Iowa ranks seventh in turkey production and fifth in processing nationwide — as a majority of the turkeys are used for lunch meat and other turkey products. She reminds everyone that the bird flu doesn’t impact humans.
“High path A-I doesn’t put a health risk in anything that goes into the meat counter or into those deli meats and other processed items. It is safe for consumers to eat,” Minnehan says. “Our farmers on a regular basis — whether a High Path outbreak or not — are always testing and doing blood samples to ensure that a safe product will be in the stores.” Minnehan says turkey producers are limiting access to farms, washing truck tires, and doing intense cleaning and sanitization of equipment and work boots to try and prevent the spread of the disease.
(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Senate has passed a bill to legalize the sale of raw milk at dairy farms. It still would be illegal to sell unpasteurized milk at restaurants and farmers markets if the bill becomes law, but raw milk and other products like cheese, yogurt and ice cream that are made with unpasteurized milk could be sold legally at the dairy where it’s processed. Senator Tony Bisignano, a Democrat from Des Moines, says the bill makes something legal that’s going on already.
“I don’t think in this state people ought to be criminalized for things that they choose to do that don’t harm someone else,” Bisignano said. Republican Senator Jason Schultz of Schleswig says the vast majority of states now allow raw milk sales. “If we do this, get it all the way through, there’ll be only five states left,” Schultz says. “…It’s not a political issue. This is just a (decision of): ‘Do we want to let the people who want this have access to it?” Raw milk enthusiasts say milk that hasn’t been pasteurized has more nutrients and tastes better.
Critics say raw milk contains dangerous bacteria. The Iowa Farm Bureau, the state’s diary industry and Iowa grocers oppose the bill. Senator Janet Petersen, a Democrat from Des Moines, says raw milk should have a warning label because pregnant women are at serious risk of becoming ill from Listeria if they consume it. “A warning label to prevent stillbirth, miscarriage, death of a newborn and illness of a pregnant mom I don’t believe is too much to ask,” Petersen says.
Senate Democratic Leader Zach Wahls says federal data shows at least 144 Americans had to be hospitalized between 1993 and 2012 after consuming raw milk. “This idea that there’s no connections to hospitalizations or outbreaks is simply not true,” Wahls says. Previous attempts to legalize raw milk sales in Iowa have stalled in the past two decades. The Senate bill on the subject passed on a 32-to-15 vote and goes to the House for review.
(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s two U-S senators are introducing new legislation they say will bring an immediate lowering of gasoline prices while boosting biofuel production. Senator Joni Ernst says President Biden’s announcement Tuesday to ban Russian oil imports didn’t take advantage of the domestic fuel option, but instead Biden lauded the use of electric vehicles, a policy Ernst calls “reckless.”
“Energy security is national security,” Ernst says. “Banning Russian oil was long overdue but it’s unacceptable that this administration remains beholden to the radical, deranged climate agenda of the far left and still refuses to support America’s homegrown energy, like Iowa biofuel.” Ernst, a Republican, says the Homefront Energy Independence Act has bipartisan support and would put the ban on Russian oil into law while combining several other efforts from previous bills. Ernst says, “It would make E-15 available year-round, establish an E-15 and biodiesel tax credit, direct EPA to finalize their E-15 labeling rule, and provide for biofuel infrastructure and compatibility with retailers.”
Ernst says gasoline prices are at record high levels, topping four dollars a gallon in many states, and she says the solution is simple: backing biofuels. “Iowa’s clean, American-made renewable fuels are ready and available to meet our nation’s needs right away,” Ernst says. “In fact, the current excess ethanol capacity domestically is nearly the same as the amount of Russian gas the U.S. had been importing, roughly 83-million barrels versus 87-million barrels.”
Senator Chuck Grassley quotes Triple-A in saying gasoline prices nationally are averaging four-dollars and 17 cents a gallon, surpassing all-time records set in July of 2008. Grassley, a Republican, disagrees with the administration “begging OPEC to send us more oil” while releasing billions of gallons from the strategic petroleum reserve. “While the price of oil continues to go up, President Biden is off talking about electric vehicles,” Grassley says, “which require, can you imagine, rare earth minerals that come from where? Russia and China.”
Grassley says domestic biofuels provide the quick and easy answer the country needs by immediately slashing prices at the pump. “It’s a clean energy solution that can immediately lower gas prices and bolster American energy independence,” Grassley says, “and will result in a cleaner environment than importing dirty oil from Venezuela.”
Triple-A-Iowa shows gasoline prices are averaging $3.89 a gallon statewide, which is still shy of the Iowa record average of $4.02 set in July of 2008. In the past week, gas prices in Iowa have risen 46-cents a gallon on average, and they’ve risen 60-cents in the past month. A year ago, gas was averaging $2.76 in Iowa, a dollar-13 below the current price.
Breeding Peregrine Falcons (Falco peregrinus) disappeared from Iowa in the 1950s because of wide spread use of the pesticide DDT. Peregrine falcons historically nested on cliff ledges, but have also adapted to nest on human-made structures like tall buildings and bridges.
Two eggs sit in the shallow “scrape” that serve as nests for Peregrine Falcons
After DDT was banned in the U.S. in 1972, the Iowa DNR began a Peregrine Falcon restoration program in 1989 with 23 birds released in Cedar Rapids followed by another 19 released in Des Moines in 1991. Between 1989 and 2003, a total of 169 birds were released in Iowa feeding into a regional restoration effort that saw 875 birds released across the Midwest. In 1999, the first pair of birds nested on their historic nesting grounds along the Mississippi River bluffs. Most of Iowa’s current Peregrine Falcon nests occur in the eastern half of the state in three main environments: Urban, Mississippi River bluff faces and energy plant towers.
Each year, monitoring of nest sites is accomplished by a network of volunteer and professional surveyors. The Raptor Resource Project monitors and bands birds at a number of Peregrine nest sites in the Northeastern corner of the state. Several of the nest sites are on power plants which have restricted access so we rely on employees who not only monitor the nest sites but are often wonderful stewards for the birds. Surveyors collect data on the nest’s activity and whether the pair are successful in producing fledglings.
There were 20 known nest sites in 2021 which had recently been active or were suspected active. One new nesting site was established and three sites along the Mississippi River that were inactive in 2020 were active in 2021. Reports were received on 17 of the 20 sites (Table 1). Sixteen of the 17 monitored nests were active, one inactive. Of the 16 active nests, 5 failed to produce young and 11 were successful. A minimum total of 28 young were fledged from the 11 successful nests. An average of 1.75 young were produced at each nest with a known outcome.
Comparing 2021 data to recent years indicates that 2021 was a good year for breeding Peregrines, with more active/recently active nest sites than in 2020 and the second highest percent of successful active nests (69%) since 2016 (Figure 2). A minimum of 28 Peregrine Falcons fledged in Iowa in 2021, the second highest number since 2016. Overall, Iowa’s nesting population of Peregrine Falcons appears to be stable, with birds generally returning to historic nesting sites each year, but this recovering population continues to warrant annual monitoring.
In future years, the DNR will continue to monitor Peregrine Falcon nest sites with the partnership of volunteers and others who care about falcons in Iowa. Falcon nest sites can be very challenging to monitor because of their location and the territoriality of the birds so any data received is much appreciated. Monitors are needed at nest sites in the Quad Cities and Burlington. Please contact the DNR’s Volunteer Wildlife Monitoring Program coordinator if you’d like to help, vwmp@dnr.iowa.gov.
(Radio Iowa) – A legislative committee has voted to temporarily delay implementing a new state rule governing the care of livestock after major Iowa farm groups objected. The rule was originally scheduled to go into effect April 1st. It would have forced veterinarians to examine animals they’re prescribing drugs for or visit the site where the animals are being raised at least once in the past year. Eldon McAfee is an attorney for the Iowa Pork Producers Association. “By going to a hard and fast time deadline — within the past 12 months — affects our facilities quite a bit and we believe the best professional judgement should be respected on behalf of the veterinarians,” McAfee says.
Current rules call for timely and medically necessary visits, but Dr. Duane Ray, chairman of the Iowa Veterinary Medicine Board, says it’s time to put some teeth in the rule to protect animal health. “To be quite honest with you, I’m a little stunned that the Pork Producers and the Farm Bureau are lobbying against this…The Iowa Veterinary Medicine Association is solidly behind this,” Dr. Ray said. “…We have hog producers managing veterinarians. That has to stop.” Dr. Ray says this is a critical time with African Swine Fever detected in the Dominican Republican and Haiti. “If we get African Swine Fever in Iowa, it’s going to make COVID look like a walk in the park,” Dr. Ray said. “…All swine movement stops for 72 hours. That means the packing houses shut down. All semis stop, so we need veterinarians in the field, familiar with these operations, so we can get this controlled.”
The board has been negotiating with the pork industry for a year over this new rule, according to Dr. Ray. “One of the veterinarians who represented one of the large corporate swine operations commented: ‘There’s no way I can physically get to all of my clients in 12 months,'” Dr. Ray said. “My response was: ‘Are they really your clients…If you can’t get on that farm for 30 minutes in 12 months…or are you just sitting in a corporate office signing scripts?'”
The legislature’s Administration Rules Review Committee voted to delay implementing the rule for 70 days, but committee members warned the commodity groups the rule will go into effect in June as is if they don’t engage in good faith negotiations. Representative Mike Sexton, a Republican from Rockwell City, says it’s become common practice for a case of antibiotics to accompany semi loads of pigs delivered to large scale confinements. “Those pigs aren’t sick,” Sexton says. “Nobody’s looked at those pigs. We’re just going to have a huge, onhand supply of registered antibiotics that a non-veterinarian is going to be able to administer. That’s the problem.”
Dr. Ray told legislators he’d been called to examine a sick calf and learned the farmer had treated the calf with antibiotics that came with a shipment of pigs, drugs that are not to be given to cattle.
DES MOINES – Today (Monday), Gov. Kim Reynolds announced the signing of a disaster proclamation for Buena Vista County, in northwest Iowa, in response to the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) – or, Bird Flu – effective immediately, and continuing through April 5, 2022. The proclamation allows state resources from Iowa Homeland Security, the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, and other agencies to assist with tracking and monitoring, rapid detection, containment, disposal, and disinfection. The proclamation also waives regulatory provisions related to commercial vehicles responding to affected sites.
The recent highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) detections in birds do not present an immediate public health concern, and it remains safe to eat poultry products. If producers suspect signs of HPAI in their flocks, they should contact their veterinarian immediately.
The USDA has confirmed a positive case at a commercial turkey flock in Buena Vista County. On March 1, 2022, a positive case was confirmed in a backyard, non-commercial flock in Pottawattamie County.
(Radio Iowa) – The U-S Department of Labor says it has recovered unpaid wages for workers at a Sioux City meat processing plant. The Labor Department says their investigation found the Seaboard Triumph Foods pork processing failed to pay 413 employees for work completed before and after their shifts, such as set up, clean up, and knife sharpening. The Department says this violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by not paying the employees for all hours worked — and not paying overtime at time and-a-half when workers exceeded 40 hours in a workweek.
It says nearly 332-thousand dollars ($331,807) in back wager were recovered for the workers.
(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Senator Joni Ernst, a Republican, is partnering with a Georgia Senator who’s a Democrat to seek more permanent funding for a government program that trains dogs to detect animal diseases.
“They use some of them in airports because, of course, people bring in unauthorized goods through TSA and other means,” Ernst says. Most of the dogs are beagles and the operation has been dubbed the “Beagle Brigade” — and Ernst says it’s role is critical due to rising concerns about African Swine Fever and bird flu.
The National Detector Dog Training Center in Georgia is financed this year with about seven million dollars in airport fees, but Ernst says that’s an unstable funding source. “Wild swings in funding that don’t allow the consistencies that we need to make sure we’re protecting our goods here in the United States,” Ernst says.
Ernst is pushing for congress to include funding for the program in the U-S-D-A’s budget. The dogs help screen baggage, cargo, and parcels at nearly 90 U.S. airports to detect fruits, vegetables and meats that could carry foreign plant pests or animal diseases into the country. Beagles are the preferred breed for this work because they are even tempered in crowds and have a highly-developed sense of smell.
(Reporting by Iowa Public Radio’s Katie Peikes)
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