In early December, Sonoma County, California, declared an agricultural disaster when two poultry farms had to kill their entire flocks to try to stop “highly pathogenic avian influenza” — or bird flu — from spreading. This particular strain of bird flu, H5N1, had first been reported in the United States in early 2022 when escalating avian horror stories began popping up in headlines: Two zoos reported bird flu among their flocks, prompting zoos across the country to pull their birds off-display; three bald eagles were infected in Georgia and died; hundreds of infected birds were found dead at a lake in the Chicago suburbs.
Tens of millions of turkey and chickens at commercial farms have since been killed to try to suppress the outbreak.
