February 11, 2026

More than one million commercial layers in Weld County, Colorado, US, infected with bird flu

Millions of birds, including 1.3 million commercial table egg layers in Weld County, Colorado, the United States, have been sickened with highly pathogenic avian influenza, per last week's notifications from the US Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services (APHIS).

In addition to the major outbreak in Colorado, 722,000 birds on a commercial table egg layer farm facility in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, were also sickened. Lancaster County had two other detections last week involving roughly 70,000 poultry. Also of note, two live-bird markets in Philadelphia reported avian flu among 500 animals.

In Charles Mix County, South Dakota, 71,800 animals were infected at a commercial turkey meat facility.

Within the past 30 days, avian flu has been detected in 59 flocks, including 19 commercial flocks and 40 backyard flocks. A total of 4.9 million birds have been involved in these outbreaks.

In wild bird detections, APHIS noted 25 detections, including several Canada goose detections in multiple counties in New York, and Canada geese in Garfield County, Oklahoma.

- CIDRAP