New York duck farm to kill flock of 100,000 after bird flu outbreak

A Long Island farm will reportedly euthanize more than 100,000 ducks after a bird flu outbreak hit the eastern New York facility.

Staff at the Crescent Duck Farm in Aquebogue, New York, noticed that many of birds were ill, according to Newsday and local station WABC-TV. They later tested positive for the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), which has been infecting people, pets and poultry across the U.S.

Crescent Duck Farm President Doug Corwin said the euthanasia is particularly devastating as Long Island used to be known for its extensive duck farming industry. The business is the largest major commercial duck farm in Suffolk County and one of the last in Long Island, WABC reported.

The family-owned farm has been operating since 1908, WABC reported.

“You constantly monitor your flock − three times a day. One day things looked unusual. I noticed a few lethargic birds that didn’t seem right,” Corwin told Newsday. “It’s my legacy. I think we’re kind of iconic, considering we are what Long Island was known for. And I just don’t want it to end this way.”

But the entire flock has to be killed for public safety, Suffolk County Health Commissioner Gregson Pigott told the station.

“Unfortunately, when you have a situation like this where you have a flock that’s infected, the remedy is to put the entire flock down,” he said.

Bird flu found in Georgia commercial poultry plant

Last week the bird flu reached a northeastern Georgia poultry plant, marking the fifth positive HPAI case in the state and the first case at commercial poultry operation, state officials confirmed.

The case was located a facility in Elbert County, the Georgia Department of Agriculture confirmed Friday, along with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Officials on Friday issued a quarantine of all commercial poultry operations within a 6.2-mile radius with surveillance testing set to follow for at least two weeks. All in-state poultry exhibitions, shows, swaps, meets and sales have been suspended until further notice, the department said. 

“This is a serious threat to Georgia’s #1 industry and the livelihoods of thousands of Georgians who make their living in our state’s poultry industry,” Tyler Harper, state agriculture commissioner, said in a statement. “We are working around the clock to mitigate any further spread of the disease and ensure that normal poultry activities in Georgia can resume as quickly as possible.”

Bird flu: What to know now

Bird flu has been making its way around the world since 1997 but had been largely confined to wild birds until recent years. since emerging in 2020 in Europe, the current bird flu strain, H5N1, has been declared the largest avian flu epidemic ever on that continent and has spread to Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

The bird flu strain appeared in the U.S. in late 2021. Since April 2024, there have been a total of 61 reported human cases of H5 bird flu reported in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Earlier this month, the first person in the U.S. to die of bird flu was reported Jan. 6 by the Louisiana Department of Public Health. The patient was over 65 and reported to have underlying medical conditions.

Back in December, bird flu concerns led to the recall of a line of cat food from Northwest Naturals after health authorities linked the death of a cat to a batch of feed contaminated with bird flu. The USDA also began testing of milk nationwide to address bird flu outbreaks in dairy herds.

The spread of bird flu among poultry flocks in the U.S. is also causing a spike in egg prices. As of Jan. 6, the virus had hit more than 138 million poultry across 50 U.S. states since January 2022, according to the CDC.