2015 United States H5N2 outbreak facts for kids

In 2015, a type of bird flu called H5N2 avian influenza spread among chicken and turkey farms in the Midwestern United States. This outbreak caused a lot of problems. By May 30, over 43 million birds in 15 states had to be destroyed to stop the disease from spreading. Almost 30 million of these birds were in Iowa, which is the biggest egg-producing state in the U.S.

Because so many birds were affected, the price of eggs went up a lot. In the Midwest, egg prices increased by 120% between April 22 and May 30. Even in California, prices went up by 71% during the same time.

The H5N2 virus was first found in Minnesota in early March. At first, it mainly affected turkey farms in states like Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Scientists think that wild birds, like ducks, carried the disease to the Midwest. However, it's not fully known how the virus got inside the poultry barns. It's important to know that no humans got sick from this bird flu, and it's very rare for humans to catch it.

How the Bird Flu Spread

On April 20, 2015, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that 5.3 million egg-laying hens at a farm in northwest Iowa had to be destroyed. This was because the H5N2 virus was confirmed there. This one farm had about 1% of all egg-laying hens in the United States. This was the first of many large chicken farms in Iowa, Nebraska, and other states to be affected.

By May 27, over 25 million chickens in Iowa alone had either died from the infection or were humanely put down. In Nebraska, about 7 million chickens were affected by the same date. This was most of Nebraska's 9.45 million egg-laying hens.

Major Farm Infections

The H5N2 bird flu outbreak affected many large farms. When the virus was found, all birds at the farm were either sick or had to be destroyed to prevent the disease from spreading further. The table below shows some of the biggest outbreaks, where more than 200,000 chickens or 50,000 turkeys were affected.

Stopping the Spread

When bird flu is found on a farm, all the birds there are humanely destroyed. This is done to prevent the virus from spreading to other farms. The birds are usually put down quickly using a special foam. After that, the birds are composted, often right on the farm, to safely get rid of the remains and stop the virus from spreading.

See also

In Spanish: Brote de gripe A (H5N2) en Estados Unidos de 2015 para niños