Washington County 4-H is hopeful that detections of the highly pathogenic avian influenza will diminish this spring, as the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship recently gave an order that could cancel all poultry exhibitions this summer.

Iowa currently has more than six million birds impacted by HPAI across five commercial and backyard poultry flocks, according to IDALS. The department announced that all live bird exhibitions and transference of birds at livestock auction markets, swap meets, and exotic sales are canceled for a minimum of 30 days and until 30 days have passed without a confirmation of a new infection of HPAI in the state. Washington County 4-H and Youth Coordinator Amy Green says she and other program leaders have been working hard the last couple months to communicate about the virus and emphasize biosecurity to those with one bird to a thousand, “And so we’ve been giving our poultry exhibitors those resources to know how to protect themselves but also trying hard to just communicate to all of our audiences that this is important whether you’re coming and going to any farms or in contact with backyard flocks just to be smart about where you are going and who you’re interacting with to help protect our turkey farmers just down the road who have very large operations that we want to keep safe and healthy.”

Green believes the warmer spring temperatures should clamp down on the number of avian flu cases, which have not yet been confirmed in Washington County, and they have until June to make a decision on whether the county fair’s poultry show will have to be canceled. In that case Green and ISU Extension and Outreach have expressed that they would create other hands-on educational project opportunities much like in 2015 when all poultry exhibitions were suspended. The Iowa Poultry Association recommended the cancellation for the state, as Iowa leads the nation in egg production and ranks seventh in turkey production.