The latest case to be confirmed by the US Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is:

• Iowa, Sioux county - 2,500 backyard mixed game fowl.

This outbreak brings the number of detections in the US as a whole to 222, with 47,091,293 birds affected. Iowa's total is 74 detections, with 30,723,300 birds affected.

The USDA recently decided to reinstate The Netherlands as an exporter of pasteurised egg products to the US, to ease the shortage of eggs after millions of birds had to be destroyed due to avian flu.

The American Bakers Association (ABA) has announced that they applaud the decision.

“We are very happy with the response from the USDA to expedite the approval of egg products from the Netherlands,” said Robb MacKie, ABA President & CEO.

“This swift response is a direct result of ABA members taking action to ensure that USDA and Congress react appropriately to this crisis.”

With diminishing egg supplies due to the avian influenza outbreak, the US egg market is struggling to fulfil demand needs for bakers and other food producers. ABA and its membership quickly weighed in with close to 1,000 e-mails and phone calls to USDA and Members of Congress asking for additional import opportunities.

“We are now at 35 per cent of the egg product supply being taken offline due to the avian influenza. Opening imports from the Netherlands is a big step in the right direction, but more is needed,” said Cory Martin, ABA Director, Government Relations.

“We are facing a true crisis, and without additional actions to increase supply, bakers and many other food manufacturers face dire situations in the coming weeks and months,” added Mr Martin.