One of the many effects of our recent experiences with highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) has been the difficulties that the primary breeding industry in the U.S. has had in exporting its products and also moving breeding stock within the United States. Approximately 60 percent of the genetic stock for all segments of the global poultry industry originates in the U.S. The disruption in global and interstate trade of genetic stock has had important consequences for the primary breeding companies and their international customers. As a result, efforts to compartmentalize the primary breeding industry have gained new urgency.
So, what is compartmentalization? There are two concepts that are often confused: regionalization and compartmentalization. Regionalization is a procedure that may be implemented by a country to manage populations of animals confined to a distinct geographical region within its territory for the purposes of disease control and international trade. For example, regionalization was accepted by some countries in 2015 during our HPAI outbreak, and those countries placed trade embargoes only on those states within which there were infected flocks.