As bird flu sweeps across U.S. even small, backyard flocks are at risk
In fall 2020, Leah Shaffer ordered four chickens from a Missouri hatchery — a pandemic impulse purchase to get her two children outside, she said.
“I wanted them to have a reason to go out basically into the backyard and just have some real life sort of experience with nature instead of just computer time,” said Shaffer, who lives in St. Charles, Missouri.
The four hens — Gertie, Jeff, Cherry and Rivers Cuomo — have been very healthy. They’re energetic. And they’re laying eggs.
But a highly pathogenic avian flu is sweeping across the country, reaching commercial poultry operations and backyard flocks from Maine to Iowa, down to Missouri and across to Wyoming. More than 22 million chickens, turkeys and backyard birds have died from the illness or had to be destroyed. The highly contagious viral disease, commonly known as bird flu, can be deadly to birds, including chickens.
https://news.stlpublicradio.org/health-science-environment/2022-04-19/as-bird-flu-sweeps-across-u-s-even-small-backyard-flocks-are-at-risk
