Bird flu costs run deep

CELINA - While detections of High Path Avian Influenza (HPAI) in commercial poultry facilities have somewhat slowed in western Ohio over the last couple of weeks, area poultry producers, and more indirectly, the local grain and transportation industries, are still feeling the outbreak's affects.

"We know that there will be direct and indirect impacts for those businesses that work with our poultry industry; for example, (the) feed/grain industry, transportation industry (due to the) hauling of birds, feed, poultry litter, etc," said Ryan McMichael, Mercer County Ohio State Extension agriculture and natural resources educator.

HPAI, commonly known as bird flu, is a contagious viral disease that poses a major threat to the poultry industry and animal health.

Ohio is leading the nation in HPAI cases in 2025, with the bulk of them occuring in Mercer and Darke counties - two of the state's top poultry-producing regions.

Bird flu has led to the destruction of 6,076,919 commercial birds in Mercer County this year, which would be about 69% of the county's commercial inventory of 8.8 million turkeys, layers, pullets and broilers, based on USDA's 2022 Ag Census.

"Producers are following strict protocols, including depopulating infected flocks, conducting testing in infected and buffer zones, and reinforcing biosecurity measures," McMichael said in a recent Ohio State news release. "While these efforts are crucial for containment, they come at a heavy cost for many in the industry."

Farms have been required to euthanize entire flocks because of USDA or Ohio Department of Agriculture requirements, McMichael told The Daily Standard Monday.

"That causes a direct impact on those producers, but for most of the farms, there is planning to restock the barns once they have gone (through) their approved procedures," he said. "It is during these 'waiting to restock' periods, there is decreased egg production in the region, decreased turkeys for processing, a lack of grain use for feed, lack of transportation of inputs and outputs, feed, fuel, etc., to and from farms."

A majority of the 45 commercial operations in Mercer County with confirmed HPAI detections in 2025 are in the midst of the "waiting to restock" period, per the ODA website.

During this "waiting to restock" period, affected premises are quarantined. Officials then work to determine where the infection came from and where it may have spread through epidemiological investigations and tracing movement of people, animals and equipment.

"A case manager will be assigned to the affected farm to answer questions and guide flock owners through the response process," per the ODA website. "The USDA works with flock owners on appraisal and indemnity agreements, and infected flocks are depopulated as quickly as possible (ideally within 24 hours of the first HPAI detection)."

USDA's bird flu indemnity and compensation fund pays for birds and eggs that must be destroyed, but it does not pay for birds that died from HPAI, per the USDA website. The amount of the indemnity payment is based on a producer's flock inventory and standard indemnity values.

Disposal methods for poultry carcasses include composting, burial, incineration, rendering or landfilling, the website states.

"The barns, equipment and affected areas of the farm must be cleaned and disinfected to remove the virus from the premises," the website reads. "Environmental sampling is performed after clean-up is completed to confirm the property is free of viable virus. Finally, a restocking agreement is formulated with approval of the USDA and ODA to allow for poultry to be moved onto the site."

Many factors affect the "waiting to restock" timeline, and McMichael estimated it can take anywhere from 60 to 120 days for an affected poultry producer to get back to full production.

During this time, not only are poultry producers dealing with lost revenue, but businesses that they rely on such as grain suppliers, feed transporters and processing facilities - are also feeling the strain.

"The economic losses we're seeing don't just impact poultry farms - they extend to grain producers, transportation services, and even unrelated industries that rely on consumer spending from those affected," McMichael said in the release.

McMichael and Caden Buschur, Darke County Ohio State Extension agriculture and natural resources educator, are working together with OSU Extension's Community Development program to collect data and help quantify losses and provide valuable insights for policymakers and industry leaders.

"We're using a combination of HPAI tracking numbers and official market values to assess the broader effects of this outbreak," Buschur said in the news release. "By compiling this data, we hope to provide a clearer picture of what's happening and help guide decisions that will support farmers and the industry as a whole."

The impact report is still in its early days and numbers regarding HPAI's impact on the economy's of Darke and Mercer counties were not available by press time.

"Trying to determine numbers is the difficult task because these outbreaks usually do not mean a complete removal of the farms out of the poultry industry," McMichael added. "Many times, for economic impact reporting, our community development team is accounting for how an investment of a company/industry into a region will economically benefit a region or how the loss of a major company will impact a region. The HPAI outbreak has not meant a loss of any company, but we do know that the decreased production of eggs, turkey and pullets for a section of time in our region will have ripple effects. The challenge is determining those ripple effects and the short-term economic effects."

However, McMichael said he believes that the long-term effects will be related to how poultry producers and integrators look at biosecurity on farms, and assessment of those biosecurity risks.

"As of right now, I don't know what we will see for long-term economic impacts as a whole for the poultry industry and region."