Guarded optimism for Ohio’s poultry producers

By Matt Reese

Ohio’s poultry industry has guarded optimism heading into fall migration season for waterfowl, as high path avian influenza (HPAI) incidents have not been an issue in Ohio’s commercial flocks this summer.

“We are, at least right now, enjoying some peace time in Ohio from HPAI,” said Jeff Cutler with Cooper Farms, the current president of the Ohio Poultry Association. “Things have been kind of quiet this summer. We’re just hoping that moving into fall migration that things will stay quiet.”

In mid-September, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) confirmed the country’s first poultry highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) cases in 2 months in a California commercial turkey flock. The outbreak affected 62,800 birds. The last APHIS HPAI poultry confirmations in Ohio were in late February 2024.

At the same time, egg prices have been strong based on supply and demand and feed prices have declined.… Continue reading