CNN
—
All poultry activities have been suspended in Georgia after bird flu was confirmed in a commercial poultry operation, officials said Friday.
The positive bird flu case in Elbert County was confirmed by the Georgia Department of Agriculture and the US Department of Agriculture, a news release said. This marks the first time bird flu has been confirmed in a commercial poultry operation in Georgia since the nationwide outbreak began in 2022, and the fifth time the virus has been detected in the state.
All poultry exhibitions, shows, swaps, meets and sales in Georgia have been suspended until further notice, the state’s agriculture department announced. Also, all commercial poultry operations within a 6-mile radius have been placed under quarantine and will undergo surveillance testing for at least two weeks.
“This is a serious threat to Georgia’s #1 industry and the livelihoods of thousands of Georgians who make their living in our state’s poultry industry,” Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper said in a statement. “We are working around the clock to mitigate any further spread of the disease and ensure that normal poultry activities in Georgia can resume as quickly as possible.”
On Wednesday, the poultry producer noticed symptoms of the flu in their flock. Samples were collected the next morning and taken to the Georgia Poultry Laboratory Network for testing. The lab detected the positive case on Thursday afternoon, and the USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratory confirmed it on Friday, according to the news release.
The Georgia Agriculture Department’s emergency management and response teams were then deployed to the operation on Friday for depopulation, cleaning, disinfecting and disposal, according to the news release. Over the weekend, the teams are expected to continue their work at the site, which had approximately 45,000 broiler breeders when the virus was detected.
The positive case came about a week after the virus was detected in a backyard flock in Clayton County, according to the state’s agriculture department. It also comes nearly two weeks after the nation’s first human death from bird flu was reported in Louisiana.
An increasing number of bird flu cases among commercial and wild flocks have been confirmed nationwide, with 94 confirmed in the last month, according to the USDA. Of those, half were commercial flocks, while the other half were backyard flocks. There were 11.16 million birds affected, the department said.
The number of flocks with bird flu in the US nearly doubled in December compared to the month before. According to the USDA, 122 commercial and backyard flocks tested positive, up from 62 in November. Already, 44 flocks have been confirmed so far in January.
After the nationwide outbreak began in January 2022, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service confirmed bird flu in a commercial flock in February 2022, marking the first detection in commercial poultry since 2020. There is also an ongoing outbreak of bird flu among dairy cattle.
There have been 67 human bird flu cases in the US since April 2024, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In nearly all human cases, the patients had been exposed to infected animals. According to the CDC, the current risk for the general public to bird flu is low, but people who keep chickens and other birds in their backyards need to be cautious, as do workers on dairy and poultry farms, health officials said.