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Maryland briefs lawmakers on avian influenza response: dairy testing, poultry quarantines and public‑health monitoring
Summary
The Maryland Department of Agriculture and Department of Health told the committee they have quarantined infected poultry premises, depopulated and composted affected birds, and launched mandatory testing of regulated raw milk while MDH said the human health risk to the general public remains low.
State agriculture and health officials briefed the Health and Government Operations Committee on the state’s response to highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), outlining poultry quarantine steps, dairy‑milk surveillance and public‑health monitoring for exposed workers.
Jennifer Trout, Maryland’s state veterinarian, told the committee the state had five commercial poultry cases on the Eastern Shore (two in Caroline County, one in Queen Anne’s County, one in Worcester County) and a backyard flock in Montgomery County; four commercial control areas had been released after depopulation, cleaning and disinfection and the backyard flock had been depopulated and placed in a 120‑day fallow period. “We have 5 commercial cases all on the Eastern Shore,” Trout said.
Trout and Deputy Secretary Steve Connolly described standard response steps used by the Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA): quarantine the infected premises, humanely euthanize and on‑farm compost infected birds, disinfect and then surveil nearby premises. MDA establishes a control area (about 10 kilometers) and a wider surveillance zone (about 20 kilometers) around an…
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