Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 1 · column 2 of 4 · from the scan, no model involved
Effective at midnight Monday, July 30, 2007, Dr. Richard Wilkes, State Veterinarian with the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS), canceled a statewide ban on public sales, shows, and exhibitions of live poultry throughout Virginia. The ban, which, went into effect July 9, was due to the discovery of antibodies for avian influenza (AX) during routine pre-slaughter testing on a flock of turkeys in Shenandoah County. t
In the days since the discovery of the antibodies, officials with VDACS and the United State Department of Agriculture I'SDA) have done extensive testing in the Shenandoah Valley to determine if additional flocks tested positive for A.I. antibodies. The agencies performed thousands of tests on commercials birds throughout the region and tested 30 backyard flocks within a 10 kilometer radius of the affected farm and found no additional positives. Therefore, VDACS will let the ban expire at midnight.
According to Dr. Wilkes, DNA typing indicates that the source was wild birds. This strain was 98 percent similar to a strain of A.I. found in Maine ducks and British Columbia mallards. While confident that the current situation was limited to a single farm, this confirmation of wild birds as the source indicates that everyone involved with birds must continue to practice strict biosecurity. That includes backyard flock owners as well as commercial flock owners. “Wild birds are present even in unlikely places,” says Dr. Wilkes, who was at a car dealership this past Saturday and saw evidence of geese in the parking lot.
“In the midst of five acres of cars with no pond in sight,
84.9%