The U.S. Department of Agriculture has reported another new outbreak of the bird flu, specifically in an Indiana turkey flock, per Reuters.
- This is the country’s “first case in a commercial poultry operation since 2020,” according to Reuters.
What’s happening: Indiana State Board of Animal Health sent samples from the flock to the Indiana Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory at Purdue University for testing, according to the Dubois County Free Press.
- The departments found that the H5N1 avian bird flu killed about 100 birds on Monday night.
- Denise Derrer, the spokesperson for state board of health, told Dubois County Free Press that 17 different commercial or poultry farms had to quarantine while birds are getting tested.
Flashback: There was a similar outbreak in the area in 2016, per Dubois County Free Press.
- That outbreak had three times the amount of farms that had to be quarantined and tested.
- “This is a less dense poultry area,” Derrer said.
The bigger picture: At the end of January, the bird flu was detected in the United States, as I reported for the Deseret News.
- A lab analysis from the Department of Agriculture found that the strain of H5N1 avian influenza had been found in a South Carolina duck.
- This was the first sighting of bird flu in years.
Experts said that it’s unlikely the bird flu will pass onto humans and become a virus as dominant as COVID-19.
- However, “it is still a possibility that must be prepared for by the government and public health authorities,” Haaretz reports.