Minnesota Declares State of Emergency Over Bird Flu

Revelation 6:7,8 NCV When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, "Come!"8 I looked, and there before me was a pale horse. Its rider was named death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill people by war, by starvation, by disease, and by the wild animals of the earth.

Minnesota has declared a state of emergency because of a strain of avian flu that has led to the elimination of 7.3 million birds.  It’s the second state to declare the emergency over the bird flu following Wisconsin.

The highly infectious strain of H5N2 bird flu has been found in 46 different Minnesota farms in 16 counties.  The disease has hit around 2.6 million birds.

State health officials are rushing doses of Tamiflu to farm workers or anyone else who has been in contact with the infected birds.  As of April 24th, no humans have been confirmed to have been infected with the H5N2 strain.

“There’s no reason for anybody in the state of Minnesota to be concerned about their own health,” Governor Mark Dayton said at a press conference on Thursday after declaring the state of emergency.

The H5N2 strain is so deadly to birds that an entirely infected flock will die within 48 hours.

Two bird flu strains have been discovered in the United States this year. The H5N2 strain is in Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Washington and Wisconsin. It has also been identified on farms in Ontario, Canada.  The other strain, H5N8, was found in California and Idaho.

The top U.S. egg producing state, Iowa, reported the virus in a farm that has 3.8 million hens.

One thought on “Minnesota Declares State of Emergency Over Bird Flu

Leave a Reply