avian flu

Highly pathogenic avian influenza, commonly known as bird flu, has hit the U.S. hard over the last year and a half — leaving 60 million chickens and turkeys dead across 47 states. The USDA is working on a vaccine, but that could create new issues.

Nearly 5.5 million chickens and turkeys have died or had to be destroyed in Buena Vista County, Iowa, during the latest bird flu outbreak — more than in any other county in the nation. That’s impacted producers, as well as workers and their families.

State officials and scientists are cautioning backyard flock owners to be on high alert for bird flu. The highly contagious disease has reached small flocks in Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska.

Across the eastern and central U.S., a highly contagious and lethal strain of bird flu is now spreading. Since February, more than 13 million chickens, turkeys and other birds have died because of the disease or have been culled to stop the spread. Poultry producers and backyard flock owners are trying to learn more from past outbreaks to protect their birds.

Iowa and U.S. agriculture officials have confirmed bird flu in the state. The virus was detected in a non-commercial backyard poultry flock in western Iowa’s Pottawattamie County.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts consumers will be paying less for beef, pork, lamb, chicken, and turkey in early 2018 than at the start of…

Though there have not been any U.S. cases of the strain of avian flu that has killed more than 140 people in China this year, the U.S. Department of…

Despite the bird flu epidemic that devastated Midwest turkey farmers this spring, the price of a turkey this Thanksgiving is a little cheaper than last…

Farmers and agriculture officials are gearing up for another round of bird flu this fall, an outbreak they fear could be worse than the devastating spring…

National public health officials are urging their state counterparts to be alert for avian flu infections in humans.The U.S. Centers for Disease Control…