The Nebraska Department of Agriculture in conjunction with the United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has announced a confirmed case of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in a commercial flock of 570,000 broilers in Butler County, Nebraska.

Nebraska Department of Agriculture Director, Steve Wellman says the farm is under quarantine and the birds will be humanely depopulated and disposed of in an approved manner.  He says this is the first commercial flock in Nebraska to be affected by the bird flu.

As is the case with neighboring states, Wellman believes the avian flu has been spread by migrating birds.

The Nebraska Agriculture Department is contacting other poultry production operations and telling them to implement additional bio-security measures in hopes to contain the outbreak of the bird flu.

The state agriculture director says people cannot be infected by the avian bird flu.