JASPER, Ind. — Thursday’s detection of a strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus on a Dubois County farm in southwestern Indiana comes almost seven months to the day after the last reported U.S. case of bird flu in farm poultry, in Iowa.

As of Monday morning, the Indiana State Board of Animal Health (BOAH) was reporting more than 240,000 commercial turkeys had been destroyed on 10 farms in Dubois County. It began overnight on Jan. 14 when the USDA National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, confirmed an H7N8 virus in one 62,000-turkey commercial flock in northeastern Dubois County.

Farbest Foods, Inc. of Huntingburg, Ind., stated it initially tested samples from the flock, found in ongoing screening and surveillance in accord with the National Poultry Improvement Plan, which then went to the state lab and on to Ames. Farbest – the fourth-highest turkey processor in the nation, according to the National Turkey Federation – owned the birds raised by contractors Dan and Steve Kalb in Dubois County.

The Herald of Jasper on Friday identified the Kalbs as the owners of the first farm affected. Steve Kalb said his father, Dan, began the farm in 1977 and expanded it when he joined the business 23 years ago. He told The Herald that he and Dan were the operation’s only two employees and that they did take biosecurity precautions, such as wearing protective coverings and disinfecting farm structures.

“Not sure we’ll ever know,” he said about how the virus could have infected the several hundred turkeys that first died of it.

When contacted by Farm World Saturday afternoon, Kalb declined to comment, saying he had since been instructed to refer media inquiries to a state/federal Joint Information Center.

Federal and state animal health officials in migratory bird flyways have been planning and preparing for a resurgence of HPAI for months. Since December 2014, nearly 50 million birds were killed by the virus or slaughtered to prevent its spread once it was found in a flock. The only Indiana case was in a small backyard flock in Whitley County; Iowa and Minnesota bore the brunt of casualties.

“We expected something in the fall, but we were very fortunate,” said Kenneth Eck, Purdue University extension educator for agriculture and natural resources in Dubois County. “We thought maybe it had passed, but of course it has not.”

Last year’s HPAI strain was overwhelmingly H5, which the USDA said originated in Asia, chiefly H5N2 (the letters refer to types of proteins). The current Indiana outbreak is H7N8, a strain of North American origin. “Regardless of what those numbers are, it’s a highly pathogenic virus,” said Dr. T.J. Myers, associate deputy administrator of veterinary services with USDA’s Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service. “We are hopeful that as we responded very quickly to this virus, we can get it contained and not see an outbreak like we had last year.”

BOAH reported Sunday while the original infection on the Kalb farm was HPAI, eight of the other nine turkey flocks’ infection were a low-pathogenic strain of H7N8. As of Monday the final location was only listed H7 “suspect.”

Indiana State Veterinarian Dr. Bret Marsh said Friday he’d been communicating with other states about this. “We’re hopeful this is a one-time event and we’re doing everything to keep it that way,” he said, referring to swift joint response of USDA and state teams to depopulate the original farm’s turkey flock.

Each designated site in Dubois County has a 10-kilometer “control zone” in place around it, Marsh said, which means all poultry and poultry products, including eggs and feathers, require a permit to move in or out of it.

Each zone will be active for at least 21 days after its infected site has been depopulated, cleaned and disinfected, in accordance with international trade agreements.

BOAH reported Saturday all HPAI cases found after the Kalb farm were within its original control zone and identified by surveillance testing. New control zones reach into Martin, Orange, Crawford and Davies counties as well. “Avian influenza does not present a food safety risk; poultry and eggs are safe to eat,” BOAH stated. “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) considers the risk of illness to humans to be very low.”

The CDC further notes H7 virus infections in humans is uncommon, but has been documented in people who have direct contact with infected birds, especially during outbreaks of H7 virus among poultry.