Deadly avian influenza has returned to Minnesota and Wisconsin, with the recurrences threatening to push record-high poultry prices even higher weeks before the Thanksgiving holidays.
(Bloomberg) — Deadly avian influenza has returned to Minnesota and Wisconsin, with the recurrences threatening to push record-high poultry prices even higher weeks before the Thanksgiving holidays.
Nearly 130,000 birds were impacted by an outbreak at a commercial turkey farm in Meeker County, Minnesota, according to the US Department of Agriculture. In Wisconsin’s Washington County, highly pathogenic bird flu was discovered in a backyard flock in the first confirmed case since May, the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture said.
Bird flu has shrank supplies of eggs as well as turkeys — pointing to price pain for consumers ahead of November’s US Thanksgiving Day holiday, when many cook whole birds.
The disease has been behind the deaths of more than 40 million birds, making it the second-worst US outbreak, after 2015. Avian flu tends to fester in cooler temperatures and the recent discoveries are a signal that cases could start rising again after the disease’s spread slowed during summer.
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