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 conservation‑order hunting for light (snow) geese as a tool to reduce large concentrations of birds near poultry operations.

Dr. Jennifer Trout, Maryland state veterinarian, outlined the disease response steps on infected commercial premises: quarantine, depopulation, composting or disposal, disinfection and repeated testing. She described control‑zone testing requirements: facilities in a control zone must be tested weekly; surveillance‑zone premises must be tested every two weeks; birds leaving an infected control zone must be tested twice within 48 hours before transport. Dr. Trout said the typical timeline before an infected premises can be repopulated is measured in weeks: windrows created and temperature‑monitored for 14 days, flipped and rechecked, with the full process and virus elimination typically taking about six weeks before repopulation and after meeting NPIP pre‑placement audit requirements.

Nilesh Kalyanaraman, deputy secretary for public health at the Maryland Department of Health, and Dr. David Crum, MDH veterinarian, addressed human and food safety. Dr. Crum said commercial eggs, poultry and pasteurized milk remain safe for consumption, because infected flocks identified before market are removed and pasteurization kills viruses in milk. Kalyanaraman said human cases nationally have been rare and that the CDC currently assesses human risk as low; Maryland is screening and testing farm workers exposed to infected birds and has antivirals available if needed.

Committee members asked about backyard flocks, illegal home flocks in suburban counties, and public outreach. Officials said Maryland maintains a poultry registry of roughly 8,500 registered backyard premises (agency counts varied slightly during discussion) and that the Department of Agriculture and partner agencies push biosecurity messaging via social media, fairs and producer associations. Secretary Addicks said the incident command center — established with Delaware and Virginia and led operationally through a joint incident command — is the conduit for press and coordination (jic@delaware.gov).

Officials gave counts and scope for the current response. The department said there are roughly 500–650 commercial poultry farms in Maryland (speakers used both figures), and that 223 premises currently fall within combined control zones (broken down in committee remarks as Caroline 02: 77; Queen Anne’s 2: 63; Caroline 3: 61; Dorchester: 22). Since 2022 Maryland has recorded nine infected farms total, including two backyard flocks. USDA indemnity is available for commercial producers under the Animal Health Protection Act; incident command staff reported a USDA case manager is assigned to affected farms to help with indemnity applications. The committee was told that USDA instituted new pre‑placement biosecurity audits; Maryland and neighboring states are training additional auditors to address high demand.

Members also raised concerns about other species and products. Dr. Trout said dairy cattle and swine can be infected in rare cases and that industry surveillance and farm biosecurity aim to prevent spillover; pasteurized milk remains safe, but MDH reiterated that raw milk is illegal for human consumption in Maryland and warned against consuming it. Officials emphasized that commercial testing, federal inspection and removal of infected flocks are the primary safeguards for protecting the food supply.

The briefing closed with officials offering contacts and resources: Maryland Department of Agriculture’s web resources at mda.maryland.gov, and state and federal hotlines for reporting dead wild birds or suspect poultry cases. Committee members asked agencies to continue coordinated public outreach, to share contact information with local animal management units, and to follow up on federal‑state communication channels. The committee then recessed for three minutes before a bill hearing.