Soaring Poultry Losses: Comprehensive Avian Influenza Update Across the US

# Bird Flu Update

The United States is facing an intensifying avian influenza crisis as the outbreak continues to devastate poultry operations nationwide. According to the CDC's Weekly US Influenza Surveillance Report, over seventy thousand birds have been impacted across multiple states at the beginning of 2026, with the situation showing no signs of improvement.

The Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service reported significant commercial poultry outbreaks this week. A broiler operation in Kent County, Delaware, suffered the largest detection with nearly one hundred forty-eight thousand birds affected. In Georgia, a commercial broiler breeder facility in Walker County saw over seventy-one thousand birds impacted. Additional commercial operations were hit hard, including nine thousand turkey breeder hens in Minnesota.

Over the past forty days alone, authorities have confirmed seventy flocks with highly pathogenic avian influenza, comprising seventeen commercial operations and fifty-three backyard facilities. The cumulative toll since the outbreak began in February twenty twenty-two now exceeds one hundred eighty-five million birds across more than two thousand flocks.

The egg industry has absorbed the brunt of these losses, representing seventy-five percent of all affected animals, according to analysis from the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Turkey operations account for approximately eleven percent of losses, while meat chicken producers represent eight percent. Experts warn that the virus is expected to kill millions of additional animals this winter.

The situation extends beyond commercial operations. The USDA recorded eighty detections in wild birds this week, with over sixty involving wild and hunter-harvested mallards. Additional detections included ducks in Maine, geese in Nebraska, and a bald eagle in Florida.

According to the University of Nebraska Medical Center's analysis of Department of Agriculture data, the nation has gained almost no ground since the outbreak's inception in twenty twenty-two. January twenty twenty-five marked the worst month on record, and twenty twenty-five proved a worse year overall than twenty twenty-four, which was worse than twenty twenty-three. Currently, twenty-five states report cases within the past month.

Experts emphasize that most birds have not died from the flu itself. Rather, they have been culled preemptively as federal policy mandates the killing of animals housed near infected flocks as a containment measure.

The ongoing crisis poses one of the most serious threats to American agriculture this century, yet cheaper egg prices have somewhat muted public discussion surrounding the outbreak.

Thank you for tuning in. Please join us next week for more updates on this developing situation. This has been a Quiet Please production. For more, check out quietplease.ai.

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