Deadly Bird Flu Has Returned To Commercial Chicken Farms In The US
This season, highly pathogenic bird flu made its first appearance in commercial poultry flocks in the United States. It affected one turkey farm in South Dakota and one in Utah, and it sparked worries that there would be other outbreaks. The avian influenza virus , which is fatal to commercial poultry, was identified in a flock of 47,300 turkeys in Jerauld County, South Dakota, on October 4, and at a farm with 141,800 birds in Sanpete County, Utah, last Friday, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Since the disease attacked two turkey farms in the Dakotas in April, there have been no outbreaks among commercial flocks in the United States. To stop the bird flu from spreading, infected flocks are typically culled, and the farms are subsequently decontaminated. Prior to this week, backyard flocks or wild birds like ducks, geese, and eagles had been the only recent sources of bird flu reports in the United States. The poultry industry is concerned about infections in wild...