The US Department of Agriculture has confirmed a case of bird flu at a commercial poultry operation in Elbert County, Georgia, prompting authorities to suspend all poultry activities until further notice. This is the first time a commercial poultry operation in Georgia has been affected since the nationwide outbreak began in 2022.
All poultry exhibitions and sales have been suspended, while operations within a 6-mile radius of the affected site will undergo surveillance testing for at least two weeks. The state’s agriculture department announced the measures to mitigate any further spread of the disease and ensure normal activities can resume as quickly as possible.
According to officials, the positive case was detected after symptoms were noticed in the flock on Wednesday. Samples were collected and tested, confirming the presence of bird flu by Thursday afternoon.
The Georgia Agriculture Department has deployed teams to the operation for depopulation, cleaning, disinfecting, and disposal. The site had approximately 45,000 broiler breeders when the virus was detected.
This latest outbreak comes just after a week since a backyard flock in Clayton County was confirmed to have bird flu. Nationwide, there have been over 94 confirmed cases of bird flu in commercial and wild flocks in the last month, with half of those being commercial flocks.
The US has seen an increase in bird flu cases, with nearly double the number of affected flocks compared to December. The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service first detected bird flu in a commercial flock in February 2022, marking the start of the nationwide outbreak. Ongoing outbreaks are also reported among dairy cattle.
There have been 67 human cases of bird flu in the US since April 2024, with most patients having been exposed to infected animals. Health officials stress that the risk for the general public is low, but backyard chicken keepers and farm workers need to be cautious.
Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/18/us/bird-flu-georgia-suspends-poultry-activities-commercial-flock/index.html