Bird flu has been found in every state in the U.S. But until last week, it had not been found in a commercial poultry plant in Georgia. The state is the nation’s largest producer of poultry.
Human risk of contracting bird flu is very low, says the CDC
Those most at risk of contracting bird flu are people in close contact with infected animals, such as dairy or poultry workers.
The most recent state to have its poultry operations hit with bird flu: Georgia.
The Georgia Department of Agriculture, along with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, confirmed on Friday, Jan. 17, the a positive case of bird flu – highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) – in a commercial poultry operation located in Elbert County, Georgia.
While it is the fifth bird flu detection in the state, it’s the first confirmed case in one of the state’s commercial poultry operations, the department said.
Officials have issued a quarantine of all commercial poultry operations within a 6.2 mile radius and surveillance testing will be conducted for at least two weeks. All in-state poultry exhibitions, shows, swaps, meets and sales are suspended until further notice, the department said.
That does not mean that retail sale of poultry, meat and eggs cannot continue, state officials said.
“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,” Tyler Harper, state agriculture commissioner, 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.”
Georgia produces the most chicken of any state in the U.S., with 1.3 billion chickens produced in 2022, according to World Population Review, based on USDA statistics. As of 2022, the industry employed more than 88,000 people and generated overall annual economic impact to the state of more than $28 billion, according to the USDA.
The affected operation – located in eastern Georgia, northeast of Atlanta and northwest of Augusta – had about 45,000 broiler breeders onsite at the time of detection, officials said.
The producer noticed bird flu signs in the flock on Jan. 15 and tests taken the next day were confirmed as positive, officials said. The state agriculture department’s emergency management and response teams arrived “to conduct depopulation, cleaning and disinfecting, and disposal operations on Friday, January 17th, 2025,” officials said.
Bird flu: What to know now
Bird flu has been making its way around the world since 1997 but had been largely confined to wild birds until recent years. The current bird flu strain, H5N1, since emerging in 2020 in Europe has been declared the largest avian flu epidemic ever on that continent and has spread to Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
The bird flu strain appeared in the U.S. in late 2021. Since April 2024, there have been a total of 61 reported human cases of H5 bird flu reported in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Earlier this month, the first person in the U.S. to die of bird flu was reported Jan. 6 by the Louisiana Department of Public Health. The patient was over 65 and reported to have underlying medical conditions.
Back in December, bird flu concerns led to the recall of a line of cat food from Northwest Naturals after health authorities linked the death of a cat to a batch of feed contaminated with bird flu. The USDA also began testing of milk nationwide to address bird flu outbreaks in dairy herds.
The spread of bird flu among poultry flocks in the U.S. is also causing a spike in egg prices. As of Jan. 6, the virus had hit more than 138 million poultry across 50 U.S. states since January 2022, according to the CDC.
What are the symptoms of bird flu?
The current public health risk for the general public remains low, but people who work with birds, poultry or cows, or have recreational exposure to them, are at higher risk. To avoid exposure to bird flu, avoid direct contact with wild birds and other potentially infected animals.
Mild symptoms of H5N1 bird flu infection – what most persons who get infected experience – may include eye redness, fever, cough, muscle aches, fatigue, sore throat, nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, stuffy or runny nose and shortness of breath, the CDC says.
Symptoms for moderate to severe bird flu infections may also include high fever, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, altered consciousness and seizures, the CDC says. Complications of bird flu can include but are not limited to pneumonia, respiratory failure, multi-organ failure, sepsis and inflammation of the brain (meningoencephalitis).
More states with bird flu: Maryland and Massachusetts
Every state in the U.S. has reported at least one bird flu outbreak, according to the CDC. In addition to Georgia, Maryland and Massachusetts have reported recent cases.
The Maryland Department of Agriculture on Monday reported a “presumptive positive case” of bird flu at a commercial broiler farm in Dorchester County. This comes days after Maryland officials also reported cases of bird flu at commercial poultry operations in Caroline County and Queen Anne’s County, like Dorchester County within the state’s Eastern Shore.
Bird flu might have killed more than 60 geese, swans and ducks found in a Plymouth, Massachusetts pond, according to state officials, who said testing was being done on the dead birds to confirm whether bird flu was present.
Contributing: Fernando Cervantes Jr., Eduardo Cuevas, Michael Loria, Adrianna Rodriguez, Dinah Voyles Pulver and Karen Weintraub of , Keith Demko of the Network.
Follow Mike Snider on Threads, Bluesky and X: mikegsnider & @mikegsnider.bsky.social & @mikesnider.
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