Ohio to issue counties grants for bird flu response

CELINA- Following the massive outbreak of High Path Avian Influenza area counties saw over the winter, the Ohio Department of Health is in the process of issuing multiple counties a reimbursable, bird flu grant for outbreak and prevention response.

Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, commonly known as bird flu or HPAI, is an extremely contagious viral disease that poses a major threat to the poultry industry and animal health.

Ohio has not had a confirmed detection of HPAI since March 6, but there have been 73 detections of bird flu in Ohio in 2025 alone - 47 in Mercer, 21 in Darke, two in Auglaize and one each in Van Wert, Portage and Stark. These outbreaks affected 14,668,251 commercial birds and 34 birds in backyard flocks, which are also referred to in the industry as non-poultry birds.

The HPAI grant, received by both Auglaize and Mercer counties health departments has a reimbursable amount of $50,000 and can be used for outbreak and prevention response, Auglaize County Health Department Coordinator and Epidemiologist Natalie Karner said.

The grant issuance is a part of Ohio's One Health approach to its zoonotic disease program.

The Ohio Department of Health defines a zoonotic disease as one that can be transmitted directly from animals to humans; diseases that can be acquired indirectly by humans through ingestion, inhalation, or contact with infected animal products, soil, water or other environmental surfaces that have been contaminated with animal waste or a dead animal; and vector-borne diseases that require a mosquito, tick or other arthropod to transmit disease from animals to humans.

In February, a Mercer County farm worker became the first and only human case of HPAI in Ohio after being in contact with dead commercial poultry that were infected with the virus.

"One Health is the approach that recognizes that the health of people is directly and closely tied with health of animals and our shared environment," Karner said at the health department's monthly meeting last week. "We know that one health means the (improved) health of everybody means we're all healthier."

Specifically, the grant will help support health departments' contact tracing, creation of materials and the response activities for HPAI, Karner continued.

"The expectation is once we start demobilizing, because you can't do the contact tracing until after we've all demobilized. So we'll see lots of fiscal burden essentially for like our (communicable disease) nurse, for me and for (Community Outreach Coordinator Alesia Hume) creating (documents that educate people on), 'Hey, if you're sick, this is what it looks like.' Or contact tracing and follow ups. If they've had a certain exposure, it requires active contact tracing. We're calling them every day. 'Hey, are you sick? Hey, how are you feeling? You had a fever. Are you starting to see any like conjunctivitis?'"

It's not a lot of money, she said, but it will be a fund they can bill for unexpected hours they'll have to spend on HPAI.

Mercer County also received the grant, which county director of nursing Misty Kleman said eight counties were selected for.

"The grant will assist with the funding that we've, well for us, we've already spent," Kleman said. "Mostly, (the grant will) help kind of defray those costs. We've been working on that and getting all of our paperwork and stuff turned in for that. You'd be silly not to accept it."