February 24, 2022

Bird flu detected at poultry farm in Delaware state, US with 1.2 million birds

Highly pathogenic bird flu has been detected at a commercial poultry farm with 1.2 million birds in Delaware state, US, expanding an outbreak of avian influenza that has killed chickens and turkeys in the country, Reuters reported.

The latest outbreak brings the total number of commercial US poultry birds affected by the virus in the past two weeks to 1.65 million.

Japan has announced an import ban on poultry eggs from Delaware in response.

Delaware state officials said all birds in the infected farm in New Castle County will be culled to prevent the spread of the virus.

The highly pathogenic H5 type of bird flu is the same strain detected in commercial poultry operations in Indiana and Kentucky and in wild birds.

This is Delaware state's first case of highly pathogenic bird flu at a commercial farm since 2004. Michael Scuse, Delaware Agriculture Secretary, said it is unknown exactly how the farm was infected.

A fifth commercial turkey farm was found to be infected with highly pathogenic avian flu on February 23. 36,000 birds from the farm were culled. About 155,000 birds have been culled in Indiana since February 8.

-      Reuters