Officials reported that about 6.7 million egg-laying chickens will be killed in the US State of Wisconsin to avoid the spread of the lethal bird flu virus.
According to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), the first strain of avian flu was found at a commercial poultry farm in the Midwest state, which is around 50 miles west of Milwaukee.
All the chickens on that farm were to be terminated to prevent any further infection, especially to the human food chain.
The USDA’s animal health inspection agency said that officials have secured and quarantined the affected premises. All birds in that area will be destroyed to prevent the spread of the virus.
The good news is that no humans are infected by the avian influenza virus in the United States. Authorities made sure that no bird from the infected flock would enter into the food system.
The agency did not reveal the name of the company with the infected flock.
According to Reuters, this cull of commercially raised chickens [and turkeys] is huge, next to the largest bird flu outbreak in 2015.
Back then, almost 50 million chickens were destroyed, resulting in egg price spikes. Fortunately, the strain of flu was not transmissible to humans.
Other commercial chicken farm owners are on high alert now that the virus has already been detected in eight states, which included Delaware and Iowa. The avian flu has contaminated both egg-laying hens and chickens raised for meat.
The outbreak resulted in an increase in egg prices along with other food prices, especially those using the by-products of poultry.
For now, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that the virus is a “low risk” to the human public and is considered “primarily an animal health issue”.