With the avian influenza outbreak continuing to spread across Iowa, the Egg Industry Center at Iowa State University is focusing its annual call for research proposals on projects surrounding the virus.
The center releases a call for proposals for egg industry-related research as part of its research grant program every year, and is focusing on avian flu research this year because of the “urgent nature” of the outbreak, said Hongwei Xin, director of EIC and ISU distinguished professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering and animal science.
“There are a lot of both short-term and long-term issues we need to address,” Xin said.
The center is suggesting five areas of interest for researchers to explore: determining the genotype of the virus, determining how the virus is transmitted from farm to farm and within a farm, identifying the airborne concentration of the virus that causes infection, exploring new mitigation and prevention strategies and finding alternative euthanasia methods for large flocks in an emergency situation.
Xin said one thing the center really wants to understand is how much of the virus it takes for birds to be infected.
The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship announced one new probable case of the virus on Wednesday, bringing the total number of cases in the state to 50.
The impacted farms are in 13 counties, mostly in western Iowa.
As of Tuesday, over 25 million poultry had been affected, according to the state ag agency.
The EIC has been “actively engaged” in helping producers find resources and information since the outbreak started, Xin said.
He said one of the main questions that had been coming in through the Iowa Concern Hotline set up by the state for residents concerned about the outbreak has been about whether or not eggs and turkey are safe to eat.
Xin emphasized that the food products are “perfectly safe to eat.”
“The risk of the virus being transferred to people is very low,” he said. “There has been no occurrence of that to date.”
The EIC is accepting pre-proposals for research projects through June 3. The pre-proposals will be reviewed and then finalists will be notified to submit a full proposal for further grant consideration by the EIC board.
“The EIC research grant program is intended to focus research on the top concerns in the egg industry while providing a platform to explore other opportunities for the industry’s future,” according to a press release about the call for submissions.