What we know about avian flu spread in Indiana

Hoosier farmers are on edge as the bird flu—officially the highly pathogenic avian influenza, or HPAI—continues to menace big and small flocks alike three years into this outbreak.

Last month, HPAI spread to Rose Acre Farms in Seymour, which is the second-largest egg producer in the United States. About 2.6 million birds have been quarantined and are undergoing further testing, according to the Indiana Board of Animal Health.

But Rose Acre isn’t alone.

As of Wednesday, the BOAH dashboard listed avian flu outbreaks at seven farms in the state, including the one in Jackson County at Rose Acre Farms. The six others are at much smaller operations—three commercial farms in Jay County, one each in Allen and Adams counties, and one noncommercial flock in Shelby County.

The BOAH also posted an advisory last week about a 70-bird hobby flock in Randolph County.

Since January 2022, the virus has been detected in two dozen flocks in Indiana, affecting a total of 3.2 million birds. Indiana’s seven documented cases in January are more than in 2023 and 2024 combined, leading to frustration as experts attempt to figure out why the virus continues to spread.

Darrin Karcher, a poultry extension specialist and associate professor of animal science at Purdue University, said the virus is most likely spread through the droppings of infected water fowl (like geese and ducks), which get into enclosures of commercial flocks.

In addition to the commercial cases, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources announced last month that the virus had been confirmed as the cause of death of water fowl in Gibson County and suspected in cases in 11 other counties.

“It’s extremely frustrating for the commercial poultry industry because when we had [HPAI] go through the U.S. in 2014 and 2015, it was very clear that we as a poultry industry could have done more to limit the spread,” Karcher said. “We have made vast strides in having better biosecurity, doing more things to stop the spread. However, it’s continuing to get into flocks, and we see the outcome. … It just seems to be like random chance that you are impacted.”

Once the virus enters a barn, the whole population of birds is likely to get infected. The disease is so deadly that a whole flock can die within hours.

Denise Derrer Spears, a spokesperson for the Board of Animal Health, said the office is taking the avian flu extremely seriously.

“Indiana is a very large poultry state. We’re No. 1 in ducks. We’re No. 3 in the country in eggs. We’re No. 3 in turkey production. A lot of that gets shipped across the country and internationally,” she said.

Derrer Spears said the state’s dashboard only lists avian flu cases that test positive at both Purdue and U.S. Department of Agriculture labs. That caution is partly economically motivated, she said.

“What frequently can happen is, our international trading partners may be looking for reasons to deny foreign products in their country,” Derrer Spears said. “They do that because they may try to find a way to give an advantage to their farmers and that type of thing. We’re very confident we’re not shipping contaminated product overseas. So we don’t post that it’s confirmed until we know that it is because we don’t want to stop trade for any particular region of our state.”

Spears said farms with flocks that test positive are immediately quarantined and tested every day until their birds are found to be without the virus. Any commercial flocks within a 6.2-mile radius of the quarantined farm are also put under a surveillance zone, and the farm can’t move any poultry products without a clean test and a permit from the Board of Animal Health.

In the three Jay County cases and the Allen County case reported last month, the affected flocks were destroyed.

Karcher said Illinois, Ohio and Michigan are also seeing an uptick in HPAI cases. He cautioned that farms of any size can contract the virus.

As to whether farmers can expect the avian flu to subside in the coming weeks, Karcher said he just doesn’t know.

“If you go in and look at the data from 2022 to today and look at how the cases ebb and flow across the various states, there does not appear to be a pattern—at least nothing in the various scientific circles that I am part of,” he said.

Humans can contract avian flu, but it’s rarely harmful to people.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports 67 people have had confirmed avian flu cases since 2024, with just one death. None of the cases have been in Indiana.•