A flock of 200,000 egg-laying hens in Jefferson County, Wisconsin is the first commercial U.S. chicken operation to become infected with a lethal strain of avian influenza, widening the impact of a virus that has killed hundreds of thousands of turkeys this year, according to a Reuters report. This is Wisconsin’s first case of the H5N2 flu, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Wisconsin authorities did not identify the owner of the chickens, which will be quarantined and culled to prevent the disease from spreading. Neither chickens nor eggs from the Wisconsin facility will enter the food system, officials said. Since the beginning of the year avian influenza has been found in commercial poultry operations and backyard poultry flocks in 11 states stretching from Oregon to Arkansas.
On Tuesday, Iowa identified its first case and Minnesota confirmed eight more cases, according to the USDA. Iowa became the 12th state this year to find poultry infected with the H5N2 flu. Twenty-two commercial turkey flocks in Minnesota, the leading U.S. turkey-producing state, have been infected with the H5N2 flu in about six weeks. Farmers in Minnesota raise about 46 million turkeys a year, according to the National Turkey Federation.
Migratory ducks are believed to be spreading the virus as they travel to northern states after spending the winter farther south, veterinarians have said.
Teams in other states with infections have been exploring the possibility that farm workers or vehicles may have spread the virus by tracking contaminated feces from wild birds into barns. “We’ve been on heightened alert with our biosecurity measures,” said Tom Super, NCC’s vice president of communications. “I don’t see that changing anytime soon.”
No human cases of the flu have been detected.
