US reports highly lethal bird flu at Kentucky chicken farm

Officials announced, on February 14, that a commercial chicken group in Kentucky had tested positive for a highly lethal form of bird flu, adding to an outbreak that is threatening the US poultry industry.

The contamination of these chickens exclusively raised for commercial purposes is expected to trigger further restrictions on US poultry exports after buyers such as China and Korea limited purchases last week due to an outbreak at a commercial turkey farm in Indiana.

According to Kentucky officials, broilers in the town of Fulton, Kentucky, near the Tennessee border, were infected with the same highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of avian flu as the turkeys in Indiana.

The authorities await final laboratory confirmation of another suspected outbreak among turkeys in Webster County, Kentucky.

State officials said that birds raised among infected groups will be culled and will not enter the food system.

“We are working diligently to prevent this virus from spreading to other poultry facilities,” said Katie Flynn, a veterinarian at the State of Kentucky.

According to the US government, the United States is the world’s largest producer and second-largest exporter of poultry meat.

Kentucky has claimed that it is the seventh-largest producer of chicken meat.

Source: Money Times

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