‘Extremely pathogenic’ chook flu present in yard New York flock

A “extremely pathogenic” chook flu has been present in a flock in a Lengthy Island yard flock, federal officers mentioned mentioned Saturday.

The influenza was confirmed among the many flock in Suffolk County by samples examined at Cornell College Animal Well being Diagnostic Middle, the USA Division of Agriculture mentioned.

State officers quarantined the affected space, whereas birds within the space will likely be depopulated to forestall the unfold of virus.

New York and federal companies are working collectively to watch and check areas that would harbor contaminated birds.

Officers mentioned the instances of “extremely pathogenic” avian influenza don’t current a direct public well being concern.

“Birds from the flock won’t enter the meals system,” the USDA’s Animal and Plant Well being Inspection Service mentioned, whereas reporting earlier this week mentioned that avian flu has been present in a industrial poultry flock in Kentucky and yard chook flock in Virginia.

“America has the strongest AI (avian influenza) surveillance program on the earth, and USDA is working with its companions to actively search for the illness in industrial poultry operations, stay chook markets and in migratory wild chook populations,” the assertion mentioned .

The USDA reported the invention of the Eurasian H5 avian influenza in South Carolina final month.

Officers didn’t title the kind of birds, or the particular Lengthy Island neighborhood, the place the virus was found.