This special edition of EGG-NEWS is intended to update subscribers with recent events relating to HPAI with commentary. The past week was dominated  by the as yet single case of HPAI in a commercial farm in Brazil and the implications arising from the event. A case  of HPAI in a large egg-production complex in Arizona in late May suggests that infection may be introduced onto farms from sources other than seasonally migrating waterfowl that are currently in their breeding areas. 

The messages to be conveyed in this edition are:-

•   HPAI should be recognized as a panornitic. This dictates radical changes to traditional restraints on international trade in poultry and products. Import regulations should be amended to conform to WOAH principles and standards including regionalization, compartmentalisation, vaccination and surveillance
•   HPAI is endemic in the U.S. especially impacting  regions corresponding to the four migratory flyways.
•   Biosecurity, however stringent does not provide absolute protection
•   Vaccination against H5 avian influenza is required as an adjunct to biosecurity for U.S.egg-producing and turkey flocks in high-risk areas, subject to surveillance and certification of freedom from infection at the time of harvest or shipment of eggs