(Des Moines, IA) -- The Iowa Department of Agriculture says avian influenza has been confirmed in a commercial turkey flock in Bremer County. Ag Secretary Mike Naig says it is the first case in the last two weeks -- and he hopes that means we “won’t see the length of the outbreak be quite as long because you won’t have it moving from farm to farm.” The 30-thousand turkeys at the Bremer County facility are being destroyed to prevent the virus from spreading. This latest case means the clock resets on Iowa’s ban on live poultry exhibitions. The state needs to go 30 days without a new bird flu case before events with live birds can resume.
(Hedrik, IA) -- Sixty-five dogs and puppies have been rescued from a property in Keokuk County. The Animal Rescue League of Iowa was alerted about the animals being moved from a puppy mill in Florida to Hedrik. A-R-L director of animal services, Joe Stafford, describes the scene as “horrible” as the animals suffered from lack of care. Stafford says it will take some time for the dogs to recover so they can be adopted. The Keokuk County Sheriff’s Office continues to investigate the case.
(Clarion, IA) -- While we’re more than a month into spring already, weather and soil conditions have been far from ideal for Iowa farmers to do much in the way of spring planting. Angie Rieck-Hinz, a field agronomist with the Iowa State University Extension in north central Iowa, says a few farmers have started the process, but not many. While the ground is not “overly wet,” Rieck-Hinz says soil temperatures are “still not where we would like them to be for planting.” Temperatures this week have roller-coastered from the 20s to the 60s and just last weekend, parts of Iowa got more than four inches of snow. The spring season officially arrived back on March 20th, so Rieck-Hinz says it’s no surprise farmers are getting itchy to fire up the tractors.
(Washington, DC) -- The U-S Transportation Secretary says addressing safety concerns is the highest priority for the three-point-nine BILLION dollars in new federal infrastructure money for Iowa roads, bridges, and airports. Secretary Pete Buttigieg spoke with Iowa reporters during an online news conference. He called the infrastructure bill “a once in a lifetime investment.” Nearly one in five bridges in Iowa is considered structurally deficient. Buttigieg said, “having traveled many of those roads and having gone around those bridges that are load-limited or need work, I’ve seen how much of a difference this legislation is going to make in the Midwest generally and in Iowa specifically.”
