Bird flu strain that’s deadly to poultry detected at Georgia chicken facility

A highly contagious strain of bird flu that’s lethal to poultry and other birds has infiltrated a commercial chicken facility in far northwest Georgia, the state Department of Agriculture said Wednesday.

This virus, known as the H5N1 strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza, was detected in a Walker County facility that housed broiler chickens, which are chickens raised for meat.

The Agriculture Department said the producer, which the agency did not identify, “noticed signs of increased mortality in their flock” Sunday and notified the Georgia Poultry Lab Network. Samples collected by the lab came back positive for H5N1 on Monday and were later confirmed by a separate U.S. Department of Agriculture lab.

All 71,000-plus chickens that were housed at the facility will be culled. That process, along with disposal of the birds and disinfection, is ongoing and will continue for the next several days, the GDA said.

Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper called the virus “a serious threat” to the state’s commercial poultry industry. Georgia is home to more broilers than any state in the country and produced an estimated $6.1 billion worth of chicken in 2024, the most recent year data is available.

The Walker County case is the first detection of bird flu in a Georgia commercial poultry facility this year, but is the state’s fourth since the virus began spreading at unprecedented levels in the United States roughly four years ago.

Since February 2022, the virus has ravaged commercial poultry and backyard flocks across the U.S., killing or leading to the culling of more than 185 million birds nationwide, USDA data shows. The virus has also been detected in at least 17,719 wild birds across the country and several mammal species, including dairy cattle in many states.

Georgia has had sporadic infections in wild birds, but no confirmed cases in cattle yet.

The virus can infect humans, too, but cases are rare and most have occurred in people after close contact with infected animals. There have been 71 cases in the U.S. since 2024, but the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says H5N1 currently poses a low risk to humans. There is no known person-to-person spread at this time, according to the agency.

Still, public health officials have long feared the virus has the potential to morph into a pandemic.

In the meantime, it continues to cause disruption in the poultry, egg and dairy industries, including in Georgia.

To prevent further spread, the state Agriculture Department said it’s placing all commercial poultry operations within a 6.2-mile radius of the Walker County facility under quarantine and will conduct surveillance testing in the area for at least two weeks. The agency added that the affected premises have been secured by its law enforcement staff and only authorized personnel will be allowed to enter.