Bird Flu Impacting Chickens, Alpacas

Over four-million-chickens will have to be killed due to a major outbreak of the bird flu in Iowa. The highly pathogenic disease was detected on a commercial egg farm in Iowa, making it the latest in a string of outbreaks affecting both birds and dairy cows. On Tuesday the Department of Agriculture announced the farm’s four-point-two-million-birds will have to be killed. Overall, over 92-million-birds have been culled since the outbreak began in 2022.

The Bird flu has been found in alpacas for the first time. The Department of Agriculture says it’s the latest spread of the H5N1 bird flu virus. The National Veterinary Services said in a statement that the infected alpacas were at a farm in Idaho where the virus was found in poultry that was since culled. The USDA said the alpacas testing positive was not a total shock because the species co-mingled on the farm. The CDC said the current public health risk is “low” but is monitoring the situation.