The bird flu outbreak is spreading quickly. The US has now lost 17 million commercial birds and 11 million egg-laying birds to the current Avian Influenza outbreak according to Louisiana Agriculture Commissioner Mike Strain.
That’s up from just 1.6 million when WWL checked in with Strain last week about the outbreak. The outbreak has now impacted half of the country according to the Commissioner, and while Louisiana and Arkansas have yet to be hit, our neighbors in Texas have likely cases pending.
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Strain said this outbreak, which was first detected in Israel, has sent egg prices soaring, up 52% since February.
“We don’t need this right now because chicken and eggs are already high, expensive because of food inflation and everything else happening in the world,” said Strain.
The CDC reports that Avian Flu poses a low risk to humans, and Strain said bird-to-human transmission is rare, but anyone who owns chickens or works around chickens needs to get a regular flu shot.
“Our concern is that if you get the human flu and the Avian flu at the same time that there could be a mixing of the flu virus,” said Strain.