Bird flu now detected in Georgia
According to The Wall Street Journal, a Georgia commercial poultry company has been struck by a strain of bird flu that has been spreading through the Southeast United States, putting producers in the state with the nation’s largest poultry industry on high alert.
According to The Wall Street Journal, a Georgia commercial poultry company has been struck by a strain of bird flu that has been spreading through the Southeast United States, putting producers in the state with the nation’s largest poultry industry on high alert. The Georgia Dept. of Agriculture said on March 27 that a low-pathogenic strain of avian influenza had been identified in a commercial flock in Chattooga County, on the border with Alabama. As a precaution, about 18,000 chickens were destroyed on the farm, which hasn’t been identified.
This bird flu virus, the first identified among commercial chickens in Georgia, poses a very low risk to humans and the food supply, said Georgia State Veterinarian Robert Cobb Jr. The concern is that the strain, highly contagious among chickens and carried by wild birds, can mutate into a deadlier version.
Georgia’s news followed reports of confirmed infected flocks in Alabama, Kentucky, and Tennessee in recent weeks. In Tennessee, a highly pathogenic avian flu has been detected in two commercial flocks of chickens located less than two miles apart, while another case of the less virulent strain was found in another county. Last week, the low-pathogenic avian virus was detected in Kentucky, resulting in a loss of 22,000 hens.