bird flu

The City of Lubbock continues to remind citizens not to touch wild birds, as officials report having collected more than 2,000 dead birds by the end of January. Here are avian flu facts to be aware of and ways to keep yourself and your pets healthy.

“H5 bird flu is widespread in wild birds worldwide and is causing outbreaks in poultry and U.S. dairy cows with sporadic human cases in U.S. dairy and poultry workers,” according to CDC.

The virus was discovered in an animal that had been tested for rabies.

Across the country, dairy producers have dumped milk and infected chickens have been killed, including millions of egg-laying hens, causing egg prices to skyrocket.

The new strategy aims to pinpoint where bird flu exists in the U.S. and halt its spread. There have been hundreds of cases in cattle and dozens in humans.

A commercial chicken flock in northeastern Oklahoma has been culled after testing positive for the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is projecting that egg prices will decrease in the coming months. But experts said that all depends on whether there are any further bird flu outbreaks.

The USDA has confirmed 126 cases of bird flu in dairy cattle herds in a dozen states, and three dairy farmworkers have contracted the disease this year. Now Kansas is one of four states participating in a pilot program to test bulk milk tanks on dairy farms.

This is the second recorded human case of bird flu in the U.S. “The risk to the general public is believed to be low," Texas health officials said.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says the top 10 importers of U.S. poultry have put some restrictions in place — largely banning chicken and turkey products from specific counties or regions in the U.S. Seven years ago, several countries banned poultry from the entire U.S. because of a bird flu outbreak.