Catastrophic mass mortality disease outbreak could have profound implications for counties, for the state. The North Carolina poultry industry is responsible for as much as 34 billion in total Economic Activity and creates supports as many as 109,000 jobs. North carolina has a long standing commitment to agriculture and has responded to and recovered from agriculture disasters in the past drought disease and weather events but unprecedented in potential to impact our state and the entire southeast. The department and partners are committed to preparing for and responding to this disease should it arrive on the wings of migratory birds this fall. If successful will minimize impact on poultry on economy and citizens of our state. I am prepared to answer any questions you might have. Thank you very much. Mr. Chair and members of the committee, my name is bill hartman, executive director of board of Animal Health and state veterinarian in minnesota. I want to thank you for providing me with an opportunity to testify to this group on the outbreak of Avian Influenza in minnesota. First i wanted to thank congressman peterson for his efforts in minnesota and for his support during this event. I also wanted to acknowledge John Clifford and the usda for what they have done in minnesota. Our success depended on them being there. We appreciated the help we have received from them. At one point there were 140 usda authorities working in minnesota. It is an under statement to say that high path in minnesota has been devastating and extremely difficult for all involved. A university of Minnesota Study estimated the losses to the economy of minnesota at 650 million. That was a few weeks ago. Hardest part of this disease has been to see the emotional impact this disease has had on those growers who are affected, have affected farms and on the whole industry in minnesota. Why minnesota was so affected . Few reasons. One, we are the land of 10,000 lakes so we have a lot of migratory water fall that stop in minnesota. We produce more turkeys than any other state in the United States. There is a concentration of those turkey farms in the west central part of minnesota. Lastly, the weather was right. It was nice and cool and damp in minnesota during the spring and thats what the virus likes. The outbreak started on march 4 and we havent had any new cases as dr. Clifford said, since june 5. So we have gotten a break this summer and as dr. Clifford said we are making great progress in recovering. There was a three week gap between the first case we had and the second case but then after that we had cases almost every day and at the height of the outbreak we had eight cases eight farms that were found affected in one day. This included farms that are relatively large in size. We had a turkey farm that had 310,000 turkeys on it and a chicken layer operation that had over 2 million birds in the facility. During the course of the outbreak over 9 million birds died or were depopulated to prevent the spread of the virus. Minnesota has extensive experience with low path Avian Influenza. We have had that disease just about every year since i have been there. The difference is that that virus doesnt kill birds. It rarely makes them sick but we still want to make sure that we respond to it. Working together with usda we followed the guidelines outlined for eliminating this disease. All 110 farms were quarantined, appraised and depopulated. After depopulation turkeys were composted in the barns and when that compost material was taken out of the barns the barns had to be cleaned and disinfected which is quite a job and then the environment has to be tested before we can release quarantine on the farms. Neighbors with poultry had to be identified and tested and we tested during outbreak, tested over 1,000 flocks for high path. Over the last ten years usda funded development of a scientifically based permitting system to allow for movement of poultry and poultry products in control areas during a high path outbreak. Fortunately they did this because the Economic Impact could have been much greater if we hadnt been able to move poultry and poultry products out of these control zones. As a matter of fact minnesota issued 6,000 permits for movement of poultry and poultry products within minnesota and out of minnesota. We are working hard with our partners to get all of the affected farms back in business as usual. Of the 110 farms that were quarantined and depopulated 49 are no longer classified positive. 38 have restocked and eight have been released from quarantine. All of the control zones have been eliminated so we no longer are required to do this permitting because all those control zones have been taken care of. What did we learn from this outbreak that we might share with other states in preparation for the fall . It is very important to develop relationships before a crisis with not only the state federal government but also local government. We need to prepare and train. We need to be able to depopulate farms within 24 hours. We need to identify a facility in the area where poultry are raised in the state where we can establish an Emergency Operation center. We need to make sure that our laboratories have adequate capacity to handle the incredible demands that are made of that laboratory to run tests. All Poultry Farms should have an emergency carcass disposal plan. Finally, a new level of vital security is going to be required to deal with this virus. We are doing these things in minnesota and we are sharing our Lessons Learned with other states. Thank you. I would like to thank each of the witnesses very much for the testimony. We will now go into a round of questions. And i have a few here myself. In fact, we are not going to have a time limit on members but i ask members to try to keep their questions as concise as possible and i will certainly try to do the same so we can get through this in a timely manner. We in North Carolina are very fortunate that the virus has not made it to our state or region yet but it certainly has the potential to come this fall. What outreach is usda doing to prepare states not yet impacted for potential outbreak . Thank you mr. Chairman. We have actually had several meetings with the industries and the states in preparing we sent a survey to the states to prepare them and to prepare us to make sure that the states have identified beforehand the necessary needs for disposal of birds in those states whether it be a land fill and have plans ready and prepared so we know where those birds need to be taken or how we plan to dispose of the birds in the states. In addition besides our other types of outreach that we have done we are planning on sending out a survey to the industry itself throughout to address some of the questions that we have for them in making sure that they are prepared. From all of this outreach and things that we are doing we are preparing a usda plan that will be provided to the secretary of agriculture and then provided also to our stakeholders across the u. S. Are the states being fairly responsive . Absolutely. Both of you covered this to an extent in your testimony. If you can highlight any changes that you think would be necessary based on your experience particularly in minnesota that states need to be doing and prepared for. I think the most important thing that we have all highlighted is that heightened bio security is something that we think is so crucial to this and to that end minnesota is going to fund a group of poultry veterinarians who are going to go out and visit each of the Poultry Farms in minnesota and go over their bio security plans with them in detail so that we are prepared to make sure that we are not spreading this disease. We are quite fortunate in North Carolina that we have an emergency Programs Division within our department of agriculture. They have long served our state as indicated in a variety of different disasters from the disease outbreaks, hurricanes that so frequently befall North Carolina, drought several years ago. So they are keenly attuned to preparedness activities. I indicated our teams worked with the foaming machines in preparation for what might come to pass. Frequently had to defend the use of foam in North Carolina when we reported on our budget on an annual basis. I certainly think that we are well prepared and looking forward and moving forward to be ready to respond this fall. Dr. Clifford i know there is some interest in the poultry industry to form First Responders team of sorts. Is this something that you are exploring . Are you familiar with this . So with regards to First Responders as we prepare for the fall the First Responders have to be able to pass a test a health exam basically because of the personal protective equipment. Its very strenuous work in these houses that they are doing. With the equipment on and the suits and the type of personal protective equipment that is necessary in these cases. So yes we are preparing and the people that we will be bringing on board the additional 300 field personnel that will be used for this purpose will be one of the first things we will do is preparing them and training them on that behalf in addition the contractors that we use are also part of that contractual agreement is that they will have had personnel trained, as well prior to any outbreak. We are able to put as many as 300 to 600 people within a matter of a few days and about 1,000 within a week on the contracting side we are also using our national Animal HealthEmergency Response core which is private veterinarians basically willing to do work for them. Are you finding there is communication or logistical obstacle at all here . Well, not with this particular issue per se, but you know it is a limiting factor. In other words, how many people we can get trained and ready by the fall plus how many people that we have employed. You know, i think it has been mentioned we deployed about 1,100 people during this process on the past outbreak. That is 1100 people that probably makes up probably 200 or 300 individuals and many of them have had multiple deployments. We have four Response Teams within usda. We are probably in a worst Case Scenario probably needing ten Response Teams to prepare and maybe even more. Outside the Current Research that is being done what Additional Research is needed in order for the industry and government to combat this virus long term . There are other threats around the world besides just the h5. For example in mexico in the south ongoing outbreak in the central part of the country, high path virus and also throughout a large part of the country a low path. Those are continual threats that could enter the u. S. Our laboratory as part of a global effort to control and eradicate high path works with the Mexican Government on these. To coordinate this research with our partner to the north. On research that is needed there is a wide variety of Research Needed for control programs. Right now we are highlighting having vaccines prepared and ready to use. Also there is research in other areas which is maintaining rapid diagnostic tests that are sensitive and specific development of testing for potential use with vaccines that would allow us to identify infected flocks within vaccinated populations and we would have to depopulate those as if they were unvaccinated. Also studies looking at the way the way the virus is transmitted and how to develop mitigation strategies to prevent those transmissions from occurring. How is usda working with the world Animal Health organization to develop policy favorable to vaccine use . What are you hearing there . What is taking place . Mr. Chairman, the World Organization for Animal Health sets basic international stanards on Animal Health issues. The policy and the standards within the World Organization for Animal Health would allow the use of vaccine. Its more the tradition in history of the use of vaccine as being seen as potentially unable to control a disease. Thats what i was referring to in my testimony is the culture. We have strategies which means that we can distinguish between vaccine strain and field strain virus. Its those types of strategies that allow us to reduce the destruction of animals and be able to utilize more of the protein. We need to develop those strategies and implement them world wide. The World Organization of Animal Health recognizes that today. Its the countries. Some of our own regulations that are in my mind i would say a little outdated but were trying to modernize many of those such as right now today in some of our own regulations we wouldnt allow product to come in, fresh product or hatching eggs or day old chicks from countries that vaccinate for high path ai. Vaccine is a tool that we need to use wisely. Its not something we should use consistently and continue. Then the effectiveness is dropped. Its kind of like with the human health flu virus they change that regularly. Its the same thing here. You would only use it in high risk areas and only use when needed during those high risk times. Have any of our top trading partners indicated they will be seeking retaliatory trade measures if we were to start vaccinating commercial birds . We spoke to a number of our members that we have trading partners and basically what they said was as most of them indicated that still trade with us today and regionalize us today, countries like japan, they would do a Risk Assessment first. They would initially shut us off, do a Risk Assessment. If the risk they felt was minimal or very low they would reopen the markets. That Risk Assessment can take months. So the plan is early this fall actually in september, late summer, i will be making trips as well as other members of my staff, trips to countries around the world to explain to them our specific plans and how we would use vaccine to see if we can get them to accept that and not shut off trade because right now we would be concerned losing as much as 3 or 4 billion in trade annually. I would like to say many countries such as south korea, countries such as china has shut off the entire u. S. And its not about a vaccine. They wont reejgionalize us. We need to continue to work on that issue and get them to recognize regionalization which is well accepted by the World Organization for Animal Health. That will conclude my questioning for the time being. Mr. Costa . Thank you very much. Dr. Clifford just to follow up on your clast comment, as you know we are undergoing negotiations for the tpp effort with many of these asian nations and also with canada. We have had a problem with canada on the poultry issue specifically. One, has the high path Avian Influenza impacted canada and are they treating it in the same fashion . Number two, are there any attempts by any of these countries to use this as an excuse to invoke nontariff like barriers as it relates to our ability to export poultry product . As you indicated it is a multibilliondollar industry for the United States and clearly we want to do the recognize thing for the right reasons. I remember in a more recent example with mad cow disease we saw certain countries use this not based on best science but as an excuse in my view to invoke barriers even though we were following all the proper final sanitary protocols. So could you give me an answer to those two questions . Is this taking place in terms of negotiations visavis tpp and how has this impacted canada and if so are they treating it appropriately as we are attempting to do . Let me first address the question with regards to canada. Its been canada and the u. S. We have had a long standing memorandum of understanding or actually an agreement. It shouldnt be referred to as an mou. It is more an agreement on how we would treat each other relative to these types of issues. Specifically on ai we have had agreement for a number of years now where we definitely regionalize. Canada and the u. S. Have set the stage in developing a model for other countries to follow. So yes canada treats us very fairly and we treat them the same way and we do this very quickly based upon the recognition that we have of having similar type of Animal Health systems and protection of those systems. So that works very, very well. We have actually taken that model and trying to get other countries to adopt something very similar with us. We have some discussion with some of our asian partners, as well. With regards to the tpp discussions and nontariff barriers, i think often times sanitary issues are raised to a level that are not based on science. Correct. And we definitely know that this is the case with a number of these countries. There are, though having said that there is also a number of these countries that have done, have regionalized us and have done it very in a complicatery way and have supported us. In fact, my friend and counter part in japan was under a lot of pressure, i know to shut off the u. S. He stood with us. I much appreciate he wants to develop some strategies that we have with canada between the u. S. And japan something we are going to continue to talk about and move forward with. All right. You might want to provide the subcommittee with