
Loren “Butch” Brey does not want a repeat of the past year.
First, on Thanksgiving 2023, the turkey egg producer from the New Ulm area had two farms within four days infected with highly pathogenic avian influenza, resulting in the loss of about 25,000 birds. Then, in spring 2024, his flock got hit with avian metapneumovirus.
“That AMPV pneumovirus blew through the state of Minnesota in about five days. It’s still here,” says Brey, president of the Minnesota Turkey Research and Promotion Council. He says 200-plus farms in Minnesota got hit with AMPV in that four- or five-day sweep through the state. Although AMPV does cause bird mortalities, with some growers losing 30% to 40% of their flocks, Brey says his egg production took the hit, going from 8,000 to 9,000 per day down to 400. Annually, Brey sells almost 3 million fertile eggs.
It was announced in late December that a modified live AMPV vaccine has been approved for importation into the U.S.
The hopes of Brey and his fellow turkey growers is that a vaccine soon will be available for HPAI, but even with that, Brey admits a HPAI vaccine wouldn’t necessarily be a silver bullet for the industry.
“That’s troublesome because of our export markets” not allowing vaccinated birds, “and the way this [HPAI] is mutating, how do you develop a vaccine?” he says. “You get a flu vaccine, you can still get the flu. … I’ve got a thousand questions, but not many answers.”
HPAI first infected one of Brey’s brood barns around Memorial Day 2015. “My brood guy called and said he had nine dead, so we put off hauling because I knew in my heart what it was,” he says. During an animal health emergency such as HPAI infection, the entire flock needs to be euthanized, and Brey had to do a ventilation shutdown on the brood barn.
“In the 30 years of doing this, that was the hardest day of my life,” he recalls, “to stand out there and pull that handle down” to shut off the ventilation.
Stepping up the ‘B’ word
To prevent more of those “hardest days,” Brey has implemented biosecurity measures, although he loathes that word. “I’m tired of that word biosecurity. I really am,” he says, “but we’re kind of at the end of our rope.
Biosecurity on Brey's farm includes designated parking, Danish entry before taking a shower within barns, designated barn clothes, then yet another Danish entry where his eight to 10 employees change clothes and get different boots.
“Once my employees are in the barn, they’re in the barn — [they’re] going to go about their day,” he says. “My barns are connected with halls, so you are never going outside. You will go outside when you leave, and then you reverse your way out the same way you came in.”

BRIGHTER DAYS AHEAD: Butch Brey looks toward a brighter future in the turkey industry if strides can be made in fighting diseases such as highly pathogenic avian influenza. (KEVIN SCHULZ)
Sci-fi tool
Practices of that loathsome “B” word are effective in maintaining flock health, but Brey has recently implemented another tool in the turkey producer toolbox: a tool sounding like it’s straight out of a science-fiction novel.
A year ago, Brey installed five AVIX autonomic laser bird deterrent systems, which aim to scare away migratory birds that have the potential to infect domestic flocks with HPAI.
Brey mounted the laser beam units on the ends of his barns. As where humans see a green laser beam, migratory birds see a predator, and they avoid the barn areas.
So far, the system appears to be effective.
“I would say it’s keeping 70-plus percent of potentially migratory birds away from my facilities,” he says, adding that 80% to 90% of migration occurs at night, thus the laser beams are more effective after sundown.
As with any effective tool, price is critical, and he says these units run from $14,000 to $16,000 per unit. Brey also credits Minnesota for being a leader in the fight against HPAI, and one example is a grant program offering up to $10,000 per farm to cover costs.
“In my mind, Minnesota is and will have to take the lead in this, because yes, Minnesota is the largest turkey-producing state, and the major processing plants are here,” he says, also crediting the University of Minnesota’s continued research into flock protection. “The answers for this, I believe, are going to come from Minnesota.”
Brey looks for answers so that he doesn’t have a repeat of the past year.
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