Health officials say they’ve found a strain of avian flu on a Hopkins County poultry farm.
The World Organization for Animal Health reported finding a sample of the H7N1 virus during routine, pre-slaughter testing The agency says the sample shows a low pathogenic virus. According to the US Geological Survey, a low pathogenic virus does not mean danger to humans, nor necessarily to other birds. Rather, it means the virus can mutate into a different, perhaps worse strain of virus.
The World Organization for Animal Health says roughly 24,000 birds at the farm were exposed to the flu. The exposure proved fatal to some birds and led to decreased egg production in others.
