The Indiana State Board of Animal Health has quarantined five additional duck and egg producers in northeast Indiana over the past week due to suspected infections of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), also known as bird flu.
Altogether, the new HPAI quarantine covers 18,097 ducks at two commercial meat producers in Elkhart County and one in LaGrange County. A total of 22,621 ducks already were depopulated last month at five producers in the same two counties.
The quarantine also covers 38,236 egg-laying chickens in LaGrange County on top of the 63,323 commercial egg layers that were destroyed in LaGrange County last week after testing positive for bird flu, records show.
These are the first bird flu infections at Indiana commercial egg producers since March. A widespread HPAI outbreak in Indiana during the first three months of the year required the destruction of more than 8 million chickens and caused the price of eggs to soar.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asserts the public health risk for HPAI is low. It's possible for humans to contract HPAI, though no cases have been confirmed in Indiana, according to the State Department of Health.
Bird flu does not present a food safety risk. BOAH says cooked poultry and eggs and pasteurized dairy products are safe to eat.
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