HPAI Strikes Another Georgia Commercial Poultry Flock
This week, the Georgia Department of Agriculture and the United States Department of Agriculture Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) confirmed a positive case of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in a second commercial poultry flock in Elbert County, Georgia. This is the second detection of HPAI in a commercial poultry flock in Georgia, and the sixth detection overall since the nationwide outbreak began in 2022.All commercial poultry operations within a 10 Kilometer (6.2 mile) radius remain under quarantine and will continue to undergo increased surveillance testing for a period of at least two weeks. Given the close proximity of the two current cases, what they’ve deemed as “Elbert 01” and “Elbert 02,” an additional quarantine radius was not required and a permit from the Department is needed to move poultry and poultry products into, out of, and within the control area.
In Georgia, the suspension of poultry activities for sales (auction market, flea market, or other livestock market), shows, swaps, meet ups, and exhibitions involving live birds remains in effect until further notice. Retail sales of poultry products like meat and eggs as well as poultry production and processing operations are not impacted by the suspension.