Maryland officials brief House committee on highly pathogenic avian influenza response

Maryland officials told the House Environment and Transportation Committee on Jan. 24 that state and federal partners are actively responding to four confirmed highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreaks on the Eastern Shore and are expanding surveillance, testing and wildlife response to limit further spread.

Secretary Addicks, Maryland Department of Agriculture, told the committee that the department is managing four active infected premises — two in Caroline County, one in Queen Anne’s County and one in Dorchester County — and that all were detected by required pre‑market testing. “Once it is in a poultry house, it can very easily spread,” Secretary Addicks said, describing typical routes of introduction and stressing the role of on‑farm biosecurity and subsequent biocontainment.

The briefing explained why the state and federal response is regional. Paul Peditto, assistant secretary for land resources at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, said Maryland has stood up a wildlife response triage and collection team and recently contracted USDA APHIS Wildlife Services to help collect and test dead wild birds. “Over the last month almost all of the birds that have been collected by those teams are isolated to the eastern shore,” Peditto said. He described incoming…