MINNEAPOLIS — A strain of bird flu that’s deadly to poultry has been found in a Minnesota commercial turkey flock but the risk to humans is low, state and federal officials said Thursday.
It’s the same highly pathogenic H5N2 strain of avian influenza that’s been confirmed in backyard and wild birds in Washington, Oregon and Idaho, but it’s the first appearance of the strain in the Mississippi flyway, said Dr. Bill Hartmann, Minnesota’s state veterinarian.
The virus devastated a flock of 15,000 turkeys in western Minnesota’s Pope County. Fewer than 100 were still alive by Thursday.
The virus is carried by waterfowl that aren’t sickened by it.
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