ST. LOUIS (AP) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture said the first commercial case of bird flu in the country this year has been confirmed at a turkey farm in southwestern Missouri.
USDA spokeswoman Lyndsay Cole said Thursday the H7N1 avian influenza, a low-pathogenic form, was detected through pre-slaughter testing on a farm in Jasper County that houses 20,000 turkeys. The state put the farm under quarantine.
Cole said two other commercial poultry properties within 6 miles of the farm tested negative for influenza.
The low-pathogenic flu is different from the high-pathogenic virus that resulted in the loss of nearly 50 million birds in the Midwest in 2015. Cole said the low-pathogenic virus poses no risk to the food chain.
Jasper County is about 140 miles south of Kansas City.