The Ashland County outbreak involved 640 non-poultry birds in a backyard flock. The Defiance County outbreak, however, involved 3 million commercial table egg layers.
The positive detections were confirmed by the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA-APHIS). The samples were first tested at the Ohio Department of Agriculture’s Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory and confirmed at the APHIS National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa.
HPAI is a highly contagious virus that spreads quickly and can be fatal to flocks and devastating to poultry owners, both commercial and non-commercial. HPAI can infect poultry (such as chickens, turkeys, pheasants, quail, domestic ducks, geese, and guinea fowl) and is carried by free flying waterfowl such as ducks, geese, and shorebirds.
State officials quarantined the affected premises, and birds on the properties will be depopulated to prevent the spread of the disease. Federal and State partners are working jointly on additional surveillance and testing in areas around the affected flocks. Surveillance activities will be conducted in a 10-kilometer zone around the infected premises.
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