Bird flu reported in Montgomery Co. backyard flock, officials say

[Wicked Blue]

WTOP

A case of the highly infectious avian influenza, or bird flu, has been detected in a Montgomery County, Maryland, backyard flock, officials announced Thursday.

State laboratory testing confirmed a bird flu infection in one chicken, according to a news release from the Maryland Department of Agriculture. As a result, the whole flock and the affected area are under quarantine. The birds on the impacted properties are being or have been “depopulated” to stop the spread of the virus, officials said.

Birds from the affected flock won’t enter the food system, the agriculture department said.

Bird flu “affects chickens, ducks, and turkeys, along with some wild bird species such as ducks, geese, shorebirds, and raptors,” officials said in the news release. It spreads via nasal and eye secretions, and through manure.

https://wtop.com/montgomery-county/2025/02/bird-flu-reported-in-montgomery-co-backyard-flock-officials-say/

[Alliepoo]

1. It's crazy! It's being reported that avian flu is in all

50 states. I took down my bird feeders a couple of years ago because of reading how some sort of virus was affecting back yard birds. I didn’t want to cause harm to them. Wonder if avian flu is the virus they were talking about. Then a few weeks ago I accidentally heard on local news ( I don’t watch news on tv but I was in Mr Poo’s cave and he watches it) but in an Ohio county they had to destroy 900,000 chickens on a farm because of avian flu. That number boggled my mind. Also was reading another report about how health departments were initially slow to respond to this flu and then when they did, they were met with resistance by the farmers because of economic concerns- didn’t want to be put out of business. It’s a conundrum for sure.