Cases of high pathogenic avian flu continue to multiply, almost too quickly to keep pace with. On Monday, Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey announced another five probable cases in commercial chicken farms, including a 3.8 million bird layer operation in Sioux County.

“That takes us in total to about 9.5 million layers that are either confirmed positive or presumptive positive,” said Northey.

“This has certainly been a challenging past couple of months for the U.S. and Iowa is just one example of how tough the situation can be,” said T.J. Myers, Associate Deputy Administrator for USDA-APHIS, on a conference call with Northey Monday. He said it’s a testament to our country’s surveillance program “that we are finding these cases and able to respond to them very quickly.”

Meyers said USDA will continue to support the states and affected producers in dealing with the disease.

Listen to comments from Northey and Meyers here: Iowa Agriculture Department press call on new HPAI cases

In another development, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack spoke with the Chinese Agriculture minister Han Changfu on Monday asking him to reconsider that nation’s ban on all poultry products from the United States and make it regional. “He indicated that he would take that under advisement, but Chinese law is fairly clear on this issue,” said Vilsack. He added that China is sending a team to the United States to see the biosecurity and surveillance programs in action first hand.