Poultry Sales Banned Until May

(KNSI) — Early season fairs will have a different look to them across the State of Minnesota.

The Board of Animal Health has banned all exhibitions and sales of poultry until May 2nd. The order is effective on Friday. It covers community sales, exhibitions, swaps, and fairs. Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, or H5N1, has been detected in five counties in the past week alone, including Stearns County.

The move is designed to eliminate events where different flocks will be in close quarters for a prolonged period of time. The hope is that move will starve the virus of new hosts, ending its spread, according to State Veterinarian Dr. Beth Thompson.

The order does not include the sale of baby poultry, such as chicks, either directly or through the mail. Turkeys, chickens and other birds play a large part in animal exhibitions at fairs held locally, but those events are scheduled for well into the summer.

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