Bird flu moving east
H5N1 outbreaks are shifting eastward in the U.S., with roughly 10 million birds affected in the past month and confirmed poultry outbreaks in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Maryland and Michigan — a scale that raises supply and biosecurity concerns for farms and processors. (dvm360 reports about 10 million birds affected and lists recent state outbreaks.) (dvm360.com)
In bird flu, the virus usually arrives with wild birds and then crashes into barns full of chickens or turkeys packed close together, where one infection can turn into a flock-wide cull in days. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the current public-health risk to the general public is low, but poultry outbreaks are still widespread enough to keep farms on alert. (cdc.gov) That farm alarm is now ringing harder in the eastern half of the country. DVM360, citing United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service data, reported roughly 10 million birds affected in the past month as confirmed poultry outbreaks showed up in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Maryland, and Michigan. (dvm360.com) Pennsylvania shows why this hits grocery shelves fast. On March 17, a commercial table-egg layer flock in Lancaster County had 870,000 birds affected, and egg-laying hens are the birds that directly feed the shell-egg market. (innovateanimalag.org) Maryland’s case landed in the same part of the business. On March 13, a table-egg pullet operation in Cecil County had 354,100 birds affected, and pullets are the young hens that are supposed to become tomorrow’s egg layers. (innovateanimalag.org) Michigan’s March outbreaks were smaller in bird count but still costly. Kent County recorded turkey cases involving 25,700 birds on March 12 and 51,700 birds on March 13, which means two commercial turkey farms were hit back-to-back in 48 hours. (innovateanimalag.org) Indiana’s pattern looks different because it keeps repeating. The state logged a string of March detections in duck flocks across Elkhart, LaGrange, Adams, and Jay counties, and WattAgNet reported Indiana had 39 confirmed highly pathogenic avian influenza cases in 2026, more than any other state. (innovateanimalag.org) (wattagnet.com) This is not a brand-new outbreak starting from zero. DVM360 says the United States has had more than 200 million birds affected since 2022, and WattAgNet says the country has now lost more than 1,000 commercial poultry flocks during that stretch. (dvm360.com) (wattagnet.com) The reason eastern outbreaks get extra attention is density. Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County is one of the country’s biggest poultry regions, and when a virus reaches a place with many barns, hatcheries, feed routes, and truck movements packed into a small area, each new case creates more chances for the next one. (farmanddairy.com) (pa.gov) Egg prices are not spiking the way they did a year ago, at least not yet. Agri-Pulse reported early 2026 bird-flu cases were down 45% from a year earlier, and the American Farm Bureau Federation said 20.62 million birds had been affected so far in 2026, about 11% below the same point in 2025. (agri-pulse.com) (fb.org) But the map is still moving east during spring migration, and that keeps processors, egg companies, and growers in defense mode. The latest 30-day dashboard from Innovate Animal Ag, built from United States Department of Agriculture data, showed 72 counties with 129 detections, which is the kind of spread that turns one farm problem into a regional logistics problem. (innovateanimalag.org)
