Well being officers introduced Monday that they detected a extremely contagious pressure of chook flu in two extra U.S. states, furthering a menace to the nation's poultry business.

The U.S. Division of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Well being Inspection Service (APHIS) mentioned the instances have been present in a flock of business broiler chickens in Fulton County, Kentucky, and in a yard flock of mixed-species birds in Fauquier County, Virginia.

The newest outbreaks have been reported simply days after the U.S. ordered almost 30,000 turkeys to be euthanized in Indiana after testing optimistic for a similar H5N1 pressure of the extremely pathogenic illness. That outbreak was the primary case of chook flu discovered amongst a industrial poultry flock since 2020.

APHIS mentioned Monday that the birds in essentially the most not too long ago contaminated flocks will even be quarantined and killed off, and that to this point no human instances of the virus have been detected within the U.S.

"Birds from the flocks won't enter the meals system," APHIS mentioned in an announcement on Monday. "The USA has the strongest AI surveillance program on the earth, and USDA is working with its companions to actively search for the illness in industrial poultry operations, reside chook markets and in migratory wild chook populations," it added.

Bird Flu chickens
The USDA introduced two new outbreaks of a extremely contagious pressure of chook flu after 30,000 turkeys have been euthanized in Indiana final week. On this picture, chickens are captured on a farm on February 6, 2007. Jamie McDonald/Getty Pictures

The U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC) added Monday that these virus detections don't current a direct public well being concern. Authorities imagine wild birds have been spreading the virus, after dozens not too long ago examined optimistic for the flu alongside the East Coast, Reuters reported.

APHIS urged Individuals concerned with poultry manufacturing from small-scale yard operations to giant industrial environments to evaluate their biosecurity actions and forestall contact between their birds and wild chook populations.

"As a part of present avian influenza response plans, Federal and State companions are working collectively on extra surveillance and testing in areas across the affected flocks," the company added.

Final week, Mexico joined a number of different international locations in banning or limiting poultry imports from Indiana following the illness outbreak.

The U.S. is presently the world's largest producer and second-largest exporter of poultry meat, in response to Reuters. Kentucky mentioned it's the seventh largest chicken-meat producing state and that it's working "diligently" to forestall the illness from spreading to different poultry flocks.

The flu outbreaks are hitting the nation at a time when poultry market provides have dropped as a result of COVID-19 pandemic and labor shortages. In response to Reuters, knowledge has discovered that frozen rooster provides have been down 14 % from a 12 months in the past on the finish of December, whereas turkey inventories have been down 23 %.