Poultry scare

last updated 8 January 2015

Dover, Del.

Authorities rushed to test chickens in Delaware this week after an outbreak of avian influenza was reported on two poultry farms. Officials destroyed 12,000 chickens on one infected farm and then found sick birds on at least one other, about five miles away. Two dozen other flocks nearby were found to be healthy. The flu strain in Delaware differs from the one that has ravaged Asia, and cannot be transferred to humans. The governments of China and several other Asian countries immediately banned poultry imports from the U.S., and a former federal agriculture official warned that the outbreak could devastate the nation’s $27 billion poultry industry if it spread. “There will be major embargoes,” the former official said.