During February of 2022, one of the commercial poultry operations tested positive for High Path Avian Influenza.   This triggered the Kentucky Department of Agriculture response team to isolate the operation and called for response team from UDSA-APHIS.

High Path Avian Influenza is classified as a highly contagious disease and requires the entire flock of birds to be euthanized to control the spread of the disease in the area.  As members of the Kentucky Department of Agriculture and USDA-APHIS began to arrive in Fulton County an Incident Command Post was set up in Fulton.  The Fulton County Agricultural and Natural Resources Extension Agent set up as well to serve contact for local resources and sounding board for the leaders of the response team.  As teams began to arrive, most of them were from outside of the Purchase area or the state of Kentucky.  Therefore, local assistance was needed to locate materials for composting the manure and animals, contacts for water, decontamination equipment, housing, meals, etc.  Along with locating resources, the need for other local information about the communities impacted by surveillance zone, contacting other producers that would require permitting for movement in this zone, and a general sounding board for various need became essential for the next two week during the peak of the operations.   Once the Incident Command Post was demobilized, the need for equipment storage and testing material was secured at the Fulton County Extension Office.

During the debriefing meeting with KDA and USDA-APHIS, the roles that the Fulton County Agricultural and Natural Resources Extension Agent played was discussed and the group agreed that they wanted to have further group discussions and trainings to help build a working relationship.