Bird flu detected at Suffolk County poultry farm, officials say

Bird flu has been detected in a Suffolk County commercial poultry farm, county health officials announced Tuesday.

The name of the farm was not disclosed by the county but the U.S. Department of Agriculture surveillance site identified it as a commercial duck meat producer with a flock of 101,000.

None of the farmworkers who may have been exposed is currently ill, according to county health officials. The farm is currently under quarantine.

Bird flu had previously been detected in Suffolk in 2022 and 2023 in a backyard flock and non-poultry birds.

The duck farm owner told officials he saw signs of illness in his flock last week and test results showed the presence of the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) also known as H5N1.

Staffers from the health department will be testing workers who may have been exposed and provide preventive medicine to those at the highest risk, officials said.

“The risk to public health is minimal as the virus at this point is not transmissible among humans,” Suffolk Health Commissioner Dr. Gregson Pigott said in a statement.

“A full investigation is underway because there is some potential for transmission of the H5N1 bird flu from the infected birds to individual farm workers who had high-risk exposures,” he added.

H5N1 bird flu is widespread in wild birds and there have been outbreaks in poultry farms as well as dairy cows in the United States. There have been 67 human cases reported in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The majority have been in California and Colorado. Earlier this month, a man in Louisiana who had been exposed to sick and dead birds in a backyard flock died.

So far, there have been no reported human cases in New York and none detected in dairy cows in the state.

To report sick or dead birds, call the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets at 518-457-3502 for poultry, or the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation at 518-478-2203 for wild birds.

By Lisa L. Colangelo

lisa.colangelo@newsday.com@lisalcolangelo

Lisa joined Newsday as a staff writer in 2019. She previously worked at amNewYork, the New York Daily News and the Asbury Park Press covering politics, government and general assignment.