Highly pathogenic avian influenza has been found in a non-commercial backyard poultry flock in Colorado, the USDA confirmed in a statement on Saturday, amid the worst U.S. outbreak of the virus in seven years.
State officials quarantined the premises in Pitkin County, and birds from the flock will be “depopulated to prevent the spread of the disease.”
The deadly virus has been hitting poultry operations along the East Coast and Midwest, including top producer Iowa, where a farm was recently forced to cull nearly a million birds. More than 2 million turkeys have been lost so far in the U.S. since the outbreak began in mid-January, according to Steiner Consulting Group, or about half what is typically slaughtered in a week.
The outbreak, the worst since 2015, has added to existing inflationary pressures and pushed egg and poultry prices higher. The virus has affected over 24 million wild, commercial and backyard birds nationwide.
No human cases of avian influenza have been detected in the U.S., the USDA said. The agency urged bird owners to follow best practices in preventing the spread and to avoid contact between their birds and wild ones.
