With the recent outbreak of the Bird flu wreaking havoc across the state of Indiana, the Clay County Commissioners heard from the Clay County Health Department when they had their most recent meeting on Monday morning.

Program Manager Christina Carrico gave a presentation to the commissioners for the health department, asking for approval on a $46,000 Public Health Crisis Responsive Cooperative Grant that was handed to the state of Indiana from Center sfor Disease and Control and Prevention (CDC).

The grant is a reimbursement grant so the county wouldn’t be on the hook for any money toward the grant.

“We’ve heard a little bit about this H5N1 virus each year since about 2015, but this year it’s been spreading at an unprecedented rate,” Carrico said. “Here in Clay County, we have a lot of animals and poultry and we’re just trying to get ahead of anything that might happen.

“We’re obviously very happy to help our farmers and our 4-H’ers who could potentially be affected by this.”

More details that Carrico gave to the commissioners noted the high seriousness of the disease and how quickly it can cause problems.

The H5N1 virus has a 90% fatality rate in chickens and turkeys according to Carrico. An entire flock of an infected population can be lost in just 48 hours also.

“This grant is really just allowing us to make sure that we’re prepared,” Carrico said. “We don’t want to have to put the burden of all these expenses on our farmers or 4-H’ers. The best part is there is no risk to the county. The money we don’t use would just go back to the state for future use.”

If there were to be a positive case, Carrico added that the containment radius would be six miles for a 28-day period. Health department staff would stay on site for the full 28-day period to monitor the conditions of the affected birds.

The board did go ahead and approve the request by Carrico, and she noted that the funds should be available for use in the coming weeks.

“This grant has made it very easy for us to get all of the supplies that we would need,” Carrico said. “There’s no set budget that we have to turn in, the state just would like to know an estimate of what we would expect to spend. It can go up to $100,000 but I just put $46,000 because that’s the max amount that I can see us needing. We can’t predict the future but I don’t see this getting anywhere close to where we were with COVID.”

Commissioner Marty Heffner praised Carrico and the Heath Department for the continued efforts.

“I don’t envy your job or what you guys do for this community on a daily basis,” he said. “I just read an article where they talked about they referenced a goose pond just south of Linton where they’ve been affected by this. There’s so many dead birds on the ground that they’re worried about the smell when it starts to warm up.”

Carrico added that cranes, ducks and geese are the main birds to be affected by this disease and that specifically the southern portion of Clay County would be a bigger area of concern.

“We’ve already been meeting with so many different organizations across the state who are all working to contain this the best they can,” Carrico concluded. “We’re all sharing ideas because this is something that is spreading and impacting almost every part of the state. Since January of this year we’ve seen 11 counties in the state that have been affected.

“It’s spread very easily and the containment takes a lot of effort and it has to happen very quickly.”
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