Agriculture officials say the presence of highly pathogenic avian flu in a flock of chickens has resulted in the death of nearly 48,000 birds at a north Alabama farm. The Alabama Department of Agriculture & Industries said Friday that a Marshall County commercial farm was quarantined after samples came back positive for HPAI. Al.com reports state officials said the infected flock reinforces the need to continue following strict biosecurity measures. The Marshall County detection comes a week after the same virus showed in an upland gamebird farm in Chilton County. All poultry there — nearly 300,000 — will be killed. It wasn’t immediately clear if the cases at both farms were connected.
HPAI is highly contagious to birds but considered low risk to humans and the virus is not considered a threat to food safety, the department said.
“It is…
