Fed and State Transport Plan for Movement of Eggs and Egg Products from Non-Infected Premises w/i an Avian Influenza/Exotic Newcastle Disease Control Area (Fast Eggs Plan)

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: The goal of the Iowa FAST Eggs Plan is to facilitate business continuity in non-infected egg operations found within a Control Area created in response to an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus.

<P>APPROACH: <BR> Biosecurity. Minimum biosecurity standards are preapproved by the State Veterinarian and federal Area Veterinarian in Charge (AVIC). <P>B. Registration and Location Verification of Iowa FAST Eggs Plan Premises using Global Positioning System (GPS) Coordinates. <P>C. Epidemiology Questionnaire and Flock Data. In the event of an outbreak of HPAI, an epidemiology questionnaire, previously provided to managers of participating egg operations in electronic form, will provide information that will allow foreign animal disease investigators to determine whether the FAST Eggs premises has been exposed directly or indirectly to birds and other animals, products, materials, people, or aerosol from an infected premises. In addition to the epidemiology questionnaire, participating facilities will be required at the start of an incident to submit information on daily mortality and daily egg production for the preceding 7 days for each chicken house on the premises of a premises-specific website. Participating premises managers will be required to report significant unexplained changes in feed consumption, water consumption, or behavior. This information will be submitted directly to a data portal each day during which the FAST Eggs premises is in a Control Area and will be electronically available to the Incident Commander (IC). <P>D. Active Surveillance by Real-time Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RRT-PCR) Testing. <P>E. Secure Data Portal. Data from the biosecurity checklist, audits, and GPS coordinates are entered into a premises-specific database as soon as available and prior to an outbreak of HPAI. Responses to the epidemiology questionnaire, flock production data, and daily RRT-PCR test results are only entered at the time of an outbreak. <P>F. Participant Training and Pre-positioned Instructions (Day 1). A Trainer/Auditor goes to the egg farm and conducts a morning training session which involves watching an instructional DVD explaining how to collect oropharngeal swabs followed by a hands-on demonstration of oropharyngeal sample collection in which farm personnel participate. The farm manager is given a) an instructional DVD explaining the reason for the Iowa FAST Eggs Plan and how to collect oropharyngeal swabs; b) plastic-coated summary sheets of the oropharngeal swab collection process for reference during swab collection, c) a customized submission form for the Iowa State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (ISU VDL), and d) driving directions to the ISU VDL. A certificate indicating the names of individuals who have successfully completed the training session and the date of the training is issued to the farm manager. <P>G. Spanish Language Version of the DVD. The Spanish version of the DVD has been completed under the leadership of Dr. Gayle Brown. The subtitles are completed.