Free Republic

Birds from nine more commercial turkey farms in Indiana have tested positive for bird flu. [...] Authorities confirmed Friday that a commercial flock in Dubois County Indiana was infected with the H7N8 strain, which is different than the H5N2 virus that led to the deaths of about 48 million turkeys and chickens last summer. ...

[The following is an excerpt.] Could it be blowing from farm to farm in the dirt? Could determined starlings and pigeons be carrying it into poultry houses on their feet? Is it spreading in feed, or being carried on truck tires? Federal agriculture officials are looking everywhere they can think of for H5N2 bird flu, which has spread to poultry flocks in 14 states and killed or forced the slaughter of more than 39 million birds. Highly pathogenic avian influenza has never spread like this before in the United States, and it's flummoxed the U.S. Department of Agriculture, farmers and...

A deadly bird flu strain was confirmed Friday at one North Dakota turkey farm and at four more in Minnesota, raising the number of farms affected across the Midwest to 20 and the toll to almost 1.1 million birds since the outbreak was first confirmed in early March. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said the new cases in Minnesota of the highly contagious H5N2 strain are in Cottonwood, Lyon, Watonwan and Stearns counties. The four new farms housed a combined 189,000 turkeys. In North Dakota, State Veterinarian Susan Keller said the National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Iowa confirmed the H5N2...