Georgia’s Department of Agriculture suspends poultry in…

The Georgia Department of Agriculture’s (GDA) Commissioner has suspended all poultry farm activities across the state of Georgia, following the first confirmed case of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) in chickens at an Elbert County farm.

Friday’s post on social media and the GDA website Commissioner Tyler Harper’s Facebook page indicates, “Today, we confirmed the first positive case of HPAI in a commercial pulutry operation in Elber County. As a result,all  pooultry activites – exhbitions, shows, swaps and sales – in Georgia are suspended until further notice. GDA staff are currently onsite at the affected premises working to mitigate any spread of the disease and minimize the impact to Georgia’ #1 industry.”

The GDA’s statement on their web site indicates that on Wednesday, January 15th, the producer in question noticed signs of Avian Influenza in their flock and samples wre collected on Thursday morning, January 16th. Those were transported to the Georgia Poultry Laboratory Network (GPLN) for testing, with a positive detection confirmed by the GPLN later Thursday afternoon.  The USDA’s National Veternary Services Laboratory further confirmed the findings on Friday, January 17th.

The GDA’s Emergency Management and State Agricultural Response Teams (SART) immediately were then deployed to the affected premises in Elbert County for depopulation, cleaning, disinfecting and disposal operations on Friday, January 17th, with operations expected to continue throughout the weekend.

The GDA says all commercial poultry operations within a 10 kilometer (6.2 mile) radius have been placed under immediate quarantine and will undergo surveillance testing for at least two weeks.  As a result, The GDA reported Friday that poultry exhibitions, shows swaps and sales (flea market or auction market) in the entire state of Georgia are suspended until further notice. 

Agriculture Commissioner Harper’s office will issue notifications when the listed activities may resume in Georgia.

AccessWDUN’s attempts to contact Commissioner Harper’s office by phone for further comment and details behind the announcement have been unsuccessful, as of this article’s publication.

Avian Influenza (AI) is a reportable disease in Georgia. If you have concerns about AI in birds, call the Georgia Avian Influenza hotline at 770-766-6850 or visit https://www.gapoultrylab.org/avian-influenza-hotline/.