The Alabama state veterinarian issued a “stop movement” order affecting poultry because of three suspected cases of bird flu in northern counties that border Tennessee, said the state Department of Agriculture and Industries. The incidents follow the confirmation of highly pathogenic avian influenza on a broiler-breeder farm in southern Tennessee last week.
State and federal agricultural officials were investigating the potential outbreaks at a poultry breeder in Lauderdale County in the northwest corner of Alabama, a backyard flock in Madison County along the Tennessee border and at a flea market in Scottsboro, in Jackson County in the northeastern corner of Alabama.
“With three investigations of avian influenza in north Alabama on three separate premises we feel that the stop movement order is the most effective way to implement biosecurity for all poultry in our state,” said Alabama state veterinarian Tony Frazier in a news release. State officials said samples from the three locations were being tested for the bird flu virus. Authorities ordered the culling of 74,000 chickens in Tennessee because of highly pathogenic avian influenza last week. Some 50 million turkeys and chickens, including 10 percent of the hens that lay eggs for table consumption, died in the worst-ever U.S. bird flu epidemic in 2014-15.