Walker Declares State Of Emergency Over Poultry Flu Outbreak

Gov. Scott Walker has declared a state of emergency following an outbreak of the deadly bird flu in Wisconsin.

He is authorizing the Wisconsin National Guard to assist authorities responding to the bird flu in Jefferson, Juneau and Barron counties. That includes helping with the response and clean up once the infected birds are killed.

State agriculture officials this month detected the virus for the first time in Wisconsin. It has been found in three flocks affecting tens of thousands of chickens and turkeys.

Raechelle Cline is a spokeswoman for the Wisconsin Division of Animal Health. She said Wisconsin is fighting the bird flu with a combination of euthanization and monitoring.

“The strategy has been to immediately depopulate any and all flocks that have been tested positive,” Cline said. “There is increased testing and surveillance that’s also going on at the same time.”

Cline said people are not at risk as long as poultry and eggs from Wisconsin are cooked properly.