The lifting of a bird quarantine in Oregon's third largest metropolitan area this week signaled that highly pathogenic avian influenza's grip on the Pacific Northwest may be easing.

The USDA and Oregon Department of Agriculture on June 7 lifted a bird quarantine in Lane County, Ore., that had been in place since May 17 after cases of HPAI were detected in a park in Eugene.

A regional quarantine prevents the movement of poultry from within a 6.2-mile radius of the affected area. To be eligible for a release, the USDA required ODA to complete two rounds of surveillance in the affected area, with a minimum of 14 days between, starting after the completion of the humane euthanasia and disposal of the infected birds.

Related: Another Oregon county faces bird quarantine

ODA completed the work in 20 days following strict biosecurity practices, according to a release. Biosecurity is a set of practices designed to reduce the risk of spreading disease from sick birds and birds carrying the virus to healthy ones.

After HPAI appeared to spread rapidly throughout the Pacific Northwest in May, Washington hasn't reported a new case since May 27, when Snohobish County became the ninth in the state to identify a case.

Outbreaks of the H5N1 bird flu have devastated commercial poultry operations in the Midwest this year, killing over 37 million chickens and turkeys. HPAI has yet to show up in commercial flocks in the West, but the disease has been found in backyard flocks throughout the region, including in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Utah and Idaho.

Source: Oregon Department of Agriculture, Washington State Department of Agriculture, which is solely responsible for the information provided and is wholly owned by the source. Informa Business Media and all its subsidiaries are not responsible for any of the content contained in this information asset.