It’s time to get serious about advanced filtration at layer farms
HPAI is here
12 November 2025
6 minute read
By: It’s that time of year. The annual migration of ducks and geese from Canada to Mexico across the United States. Simply look up in the sky and see the masses as they fly to warmer weather destinations. It may all look innocent enough, but as poultry farmers know, it’s the start of what potentially is a deadly season for their flocks.
This bi-annual rite of passage wreaks havoc and can have catastrophic implications for layer barns and broiler farms throughout the United States, as ducks and geese from Canada often bring and spread dangerous Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) H5N1, often resulting in massive flock and productivity losses and higher prices at the grocery store.
HPAI is here
Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) H5N1 is a highly contagious and deadly virus that can cause sudden death in pullet and layer barns. I have witnessed this firsthand on hunting trips to North Dakota with mile after mile of beautiful snow geese dead along the side of the road.
Inside pullet and layer barns, you will also see Illness symptoms that include lethargy, decreased egg production, swelling, and respiratory issues. And it’s not just isolated to chickens. Earlier this year a multistate HPAI outbreak occurred in dairy cows. In the upper Midwest—Michigan, Minnesota, the Dakotas, and Nebraska we saw a rash of turkey infections with thousands of turkeys having to be euthanized.
HPAI is tricky and infection can spread in a number of ways. While the risk to humans is low, infections can occur through close contact with infected animals, leading to severe respiratory disease. For the animals themselves, bird-to-bird contact via aerosolized droppings is a key infection source, as are saliva and nasal secretions from migrating wild birds or infected poultry. Wild birds can also carry the virus and show no signs of illness, which allows it to spread over long distances during migration. Infection can also spread if there is contamination that gets passed through equipment, shoes, and other objects. Movement of infected poultry and products can spread the disease as well.
How bad can it be?
Case in point. I have been working with a layer farm that went an entire calendar year without any egg production. Yes, you read that right. HPAI took out entire flocks, from the pullet barns to the layer barns. Imagine the financial toll of lost income, disposing of the infected birds, and cleaning the facilities before introducing new birds.
This particular farm has two pullet barns where the young, immature female chickens are raised for about 16 weeks before they are moved to laying barns. The pullet barns are designed to provide a controlled environment with specific feed and vaccination programs to ensure the pullets grow strong and healthy bodies for future egg production. They feature specialized equipment for feeding and watering, litter management to maintain proper moisture, and systems to protect the birds from disease and predators.
In 2024, this farm did not produce a single egg because of three HPAI outbreaks that year. Let’s do the math. Each of the farm’s two pullet barns houses about 120,000 pullets, when in full production. After 16 weeks, they are moved to the layer barns and ultimately produce upwards of 60,000 dozen eggs per week. This is quite a contrast and one with significant economic impact.
When a farm goes from 60,000 dozen eggs per week to zero due to this catastrophic flu, prices can rise dramatically as they did earlier this year. Also, there is a downstream impact of having to destroy the infected chickens. Typically, aging chickens are used in the production of dog food. If chickens are destroyed to illness, pet food companies are impacted as well. Consider the lost income to the poultry farm and sourcing challenges to the pet food companies when 120,000 birds have to be euthanized due to disease instead of resold for other uses. And, that is just from one farm!
Viable and profitable solutions for poultry farms
There is not one single, magic bullet that can totally eradicate the HPAI flu. However, there are several very smart steps layer farms can take to help mitigate this issue.
Practice good biosecurity
Take proactive steps to prevent contact between domestic birds and wild birds. If you must handle sick birds, wear personal protective equipment like gloves, a face mask or respirator, and eye protection. Wash hands thoroughly: after contact with birds or potentially contaminated materials.
Ventilation
I am very fortunate to work with incredibly talented people in the poultry and swine industry. We share a lot and learn a lot from each other. One critical component to any farm is adequate ventilation in barns. It keeps the air moving. The folks at J&D Manufacturing do an excellent job at creating ventilation designs to determine the correct CFM output for pullet and layer barns. The big question is, while ventilation keeps air moving, how do these farm owners keep the virus from entering the barns?
Advanced filtration
That’s where advanced filtration comes into play. While studies showing the effects of advanced filtration in layer and pullet barns are lacking, allow me to use data from a recent Swine Farm study as evidence. A collaborative study between AAF International and the University of Minnesota showed that air filtration systems can dramatically reduce the occurrence of Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus (PRRSV) in U.S. breeding herds. The study found that sow farms with commercial air filtration systems experienced significantly lower risk of PRRSV outbreak compared to unfiltered operations—showing reductions of over 50% vs. farms without advanced filtration.
With this data, sow farm owners have been able to easily calculate the return-on-investment (ROI) to justify the expense of installing proper ventilation and filtration systems.
Let’s go back to our layer farm example from above. If that farm is producing 60,000 dozen eggs per week, and the farm is clearing, say, $2 per dozen, the farm could recoup its entire cost for advanced filtration systems in ONE week. Even at $.50 per dozen, it would only take five or six weeks to recoup the investment for upgraded, advanced filtration.
The elephant in the room
One of the most significant challenges facing poultry farmers is the U.S. Government. The U.S. Government offers poultry farmers subsidies to offset the massive losses from HPAI flu. What if the Government took that money and either offered grants-in-aid, or low-interest loans to poultry farmers to install proper ventilation/advanced air filtration combinations to help PREVENT HPAI? Flocks would be healthier and there would be fewer food supply disruptions and wild price swings in the marketplace. I would think that poultry farms would welcome a positive proactive solution to the issue compared to the cumbersome process of euthanizing, disposal, cleaning, and then restocking.
Are vaccines the answer?
There is always the hope for a vaccine. However, as with all flu strains, they are exactly that. So, developing a vaccine for one strain, when the flu strain is likely to mutate into something different, doesn’t really solve the issue.
Vaccines? Government subsidies? Advanced filtration?
There are many options poultry farmers face when it comes to healthy flocks, high production, and profitability. Balancing the pros and cons of ventilation/filtration solutions, biosecurity measures, government subsidies, the hope for vaccines, etc. is a real challenge for our industry and growers and are topics that need to be dealt with. Our objective is to provide a steady, reliable source of food for our nation and the world. Getting there safely is the challenge and one we’re ready to tackle.
