A week after imposing a travel ban on poultry, Indiana‘s Board of Animal Health is turning its attention to what comes next.
Spokeswoman Denise Derrer says the board will take public comment online for the rest of the month about ways to again allow poultry shows in Indiana while minimizing the risk of spreading bird flu.
"We are looking at it from a scientific point of view and how diseases are spread," says Derrer. "What we think is really important to do is get some feedback from folks who are actually involved with birds as a profession. Because we want to make sure we're not imposing something that's not realistic because we're sitting in an ivory tower somewhere."
Derrer says the earliest a new rule could be in place is January.
That means the State Fair and other poultry exhibitions for the rest of the year will remain canceled.
Derrer says experts expect it‘ll be two or three years before the flu outbreak runs its course, but she says there‘s little risk humans could catch the disease.
The flu outbreak has killed an estimated 40-million birds nationwide, and prompted 11 states, including Indiana, to ban poultry shows.
