Poultry exhibits cleared to return to Minnesota fairs

Minnesota is ending its more than six-month ban on poultry exhibits and bird shows.

The Minnesota Board of Animal Health says that birds will be permitted at fairs, swap meets, exotic sales, petting zoos and other events starting Tuesday.

The ban was issued in the midst of the state's avian flu crisis last spring. That outbreak claimed more than 9 million domestic turkeys and chickens in Minnesota and spread to more than 100 poultry farms in the state.

The exhibition ban was intended to reduce the risk that show birds could spread the virus by comingling with other poultry. It went into effect in May just as the summer fair season was about to begin.

A few weeks later, Minnesota's avian influenza outbreak ended. But it took many more months to clear infected barns and restock commercial poultry flocks.

The poultry industry has ramped up its surveillance for bird flu this fall, in case the virus makes a return appearance.