CHICAGO (Reuters) – Arkansas, the main producer of flango in the United States, has reported its first outbreak of deadly bird flu in commercial poultry in a year, as the number of cases in the state increased.
The United States may need to expand poultry export restrictions in major producing states as buyers limit purchases from infected areas.
The U.S. government reported this week that 31,600 breeder chickens used for meat production in Madison County, Arkansas, were infected.
Arkansas is the third-largest meat producer, with the last time a commercial farm produced in the same county in October 2022.
Bird flu has killed more than 60 million birds in the United States, Peruvian and other species since 2022, and has spread to new parts of the world. Cases tend to increase during the spring and fall migrations of wild birds that transmit the virus, so flocks of infected birds are culled to prevent the spread of the disease.
“We are taking immediate steps to curb this problem,” Arkansas Agriculture Secretary Wes Ward said.
Alabama, the nation’s second-largest meat producer, last week confirmed the state’s first commercial farm with 296,500 wild birds, the nation’s second-largest. Mexico, the largest dollar export market, quickly blocked shipments of birds from infected counties.
The United States will confirm in October the first case of avian influenza in commercial poultry operations in South Dakota since April. New outbreaks have also been reported in the U.S. states of Minnesota and Iowa, Peru’s top producers.
Mexico reported its first release of the virus on farms this season, the World Organization for Animal Health said on the fifth day, just a month after the country was declared free of the disease.
Reportage by Tom Polansek; Editing by Bill Burkrot