Bird flu detected in Pottawattamie County backyard flock

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) - Federal officials say bird flu has been detected in a backyard flock of chickens and ducks in western Iowa.

It’s an especially troubling development for a state that is home to the nation’s largest number of egg-laying hens.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says it confirmed highly pathogenic avian influenza in the flock in Pottawattamie County. State officials have quarantined the affected location and the birds were killed to prevent the spread of the disease.

Pottawattamie County’s Emergency Management and Homeland Security department said in a news release Wednesday that the site was “not part of the commercial food supply chain,” and the CDC confirmed the local case posed a low risk of transmission to people.

“Local, state, and federal plans developed to respond to these kinds of incidents are being implemented and there is no immediate public health or food-related safety concern at this time,” commented Doug Reed, director of emergency management.

National, state, and local authorities will continue monitoring the site and the area to assure efforts to mitigate potential spread were successful, the release states.

Cases have been discovered in noncommercial flocks and farms across the nation in the past month. The first infection was identified at a turkey farm in Indiana on Feb. 9. In a 2015 outbreak, egg farmers in Iowa had to kill 33 million hens.

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6 News contributed to this report.

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