Bird flu? Again? 140,000 chickens test positive for avian influenza in Georgia poultry farm
State officials confirm a new outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in Gordon County, marking Georgia’s fifth case this year.
Bird flu is back, and it’s back with a vengeance. A chicken producer in Georgia has become the latest in the United States to report an outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), affecting 140,000 broiler chickens.
Officials confirm new case in Gordon County
In a press release, the Georgia Department of Agriculture revealed that tests conducted by the Georgia Poultry Laboratory Network (GPLN) and the USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratory confirmed the presence of bird flu at a commercial poultry operation in Gordon County.
“For the third time this year, Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza has been confirmed in a commercial poultry operation here in Georgia,” said Tyler J. Harper, Georgia’s agriculture commissioner.
The latest case is the fifth overall detection in the state in 2025. Harper described the discovery as “a serious threat to Georgia’s number one industry,” which employs thousands of people in the state.
Quarantine and testing underway
The department said all commercial operations within a 6.2-mile radius of the affected farm have been placed under quarantine and will undergo surveillance testing for at least two weeks.
Bird flu has hit millions of birds nationwide
Bird flu began spreading widely through wild bird and domestic poultry populations in the United States and abroad in 2022. In the last three years, more than 182 million birds have been affected across the country, including roughly 340,000 in Georgia.
Few human cases but ongoing concern
The first human case in the United States of the current HPAI H5N1 strain was reported in April 2022. The first death linked to the disease occurred in January 2025.
So far this year, there have been three human cases of the virus, compared to 67 in 2024.
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