Georgia lifts suspension of poultry activities after extensive bird flu testing finds no additional cases
The Georgia Department of Agriculture has lifted the suspension of poultry activities in Georgia, one of the country's top poultry-producing states, after bird flu testing, depopulation, cleaning and disinfecting were done in the area and no new cases were found.
In January, all poultry exhibitions, shows, swaps, meets and sales in Georgia were suspended after positive bird flu cases in Elbert County were identified at two facilities by the Georgia Department of Agriculture and the US Department of Agriculture. The cases were the first in a commercial poultry operation in Georgia since the nationwide outbreak of bird flu began in 2022.
In response to the detections, more than 100 other all commercial poultry operations within a 6-mile radius were placed under quarantine and went through surveillance testing.
As poultry activities resume, the two impacted facilities in Elbert County remain under quarantine 'until further notice,' the department said in a news release Monday.
An increasing number of bird flu cases among commercial and wild flocks have been confirmed nationwide, with 149 confirmed in the last month, according to the USDA. Of those, 103 were commercial flocks, while the remaining were backyard flocks. There were 23.06 million birds affected, the department said.
The highly contagious virus was responsible for the deaths of more than 40 million egg-laying birds last year and has been a contributing factor to the soaring price of eggs across the country, as the USDA requires the culling of entire flocks to stop the spread if the virus is detected.
'While this announcement is a great step in the right direction, HPAI (bird flu) remains a significant threat to our #1 industry, and the Georgia Department of Agriculture will continue working around the clock to protect our state's flocks and to keep prices as low as possible for Georgia consumers,' Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper said in a statement.
There are no cases of bird flu in humans in Georgia. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the current risk to the general public from bird flu is low, but people who keep chickens and other birds in their backyards need to be cautious, as do workers on dairy and poultry farms.
CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich and Dalia Faheid contributed to this reporting.
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