Bird Flu Prompts Nebraska Officials to Cancel Poultry Events

Bird flu continues to spread across the state prompting Nebraska agriculture officials to ban all auctions and fair events involving poultry.

The Nebraska Agriculture Department announced March 26 that a fourth case of avian influenza had been confirmed in the state although this latest one came in a small backyard flock in Holt County instead of a large commercial operation. Once the disease is identified, all the birds in the affected flock are quickly killed, and officials quarantine the area around that farm.

The bird flu case announced Saturday was the fourth one found in the state. Cases of the highly contagious disease have been confirmed in at least 18 states since it was first identified in Indiana last month, and more than 13 million chickens and turkeys have been slaughtered because of it.

Nebraska Agriculture Director Steve Wellman said he decided that the state needed to cancel all poultry events at least through May 1 to help limit the spread of the disease in the state.

The airborne virus can be spread through contact with infected poultry, by farm equipment or on the clothing of caretakers although officials believe it is primarily being spread by wild birds.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the recent cases in birds do not present an immediate public health concern to humans.