Northern Colorado egg facility with 1.33 million chickens experiences avian flu outbreak

Veterinarians and agriculture experts are warning Colorado flock owners to be cautious as high pathogen avian influenza is making a return to the region. Commercial and backyard flocks have been impacted by the avian flu in recent weeks in Northern Colorado's Weld and Larimer counties.

This year, the first outbreak was reported at a backyard mixed species flock in Larimer County on Jan. 5. A total of 16 birds tested positive. Days later another backyard flock in Logan County reported positive cases with 55 fatalities. The next day, 18 birds were lost in a backyard flock in Larimer County.

Then, on Jan. 28, an outbreak was detected an an egg laying facility in Weld County which houses 1.33 million chickens. Prior to that, there had been a large gap in time since a commercial outbreak occurred.

"We had not detected it in a commercial poultry flock in over a year now," said Kristy Pabilonia, veterinary diagnostic lab director for Colorado State University.

CSU is one of the only laboratories in the region that can help research, detect and confirm avian influenza cases.

"We are the only lab in Colorado that does testing for avian influenza," Pabilonia said.

Pabilonia, and her students, have been able to detect the virus in many species including cats, cows and even humans. However, Pabilonia said human cases are very rare.

"We have not had a lot of cases in the U.S. or globally," Pabilonia said.

She said that is because commercial flocks are heavily monitored to assure health standards for human consumption.

"Detections in the commercial poultry premises are always important because they are large, and we always want to protect our commercial poultry industry so people have safe food to eat," Pabilonia said. "Any time there is a commercial poultry premises that is positive, those birds will be euthanized so those products don't enter the market."

The organization "Colorado Egg Producers" tells CBS News Colorado that it is too early to know if the outbreak at the egg facility in Weld County will impact prices of eggs at the store. However, as for now, they don't think the current cases will cause a spike in prices.

However, in the meantime, those with flocks in their yards or at the commercial level are encouraged to take extra precautions to try and make sure their flocks cannot be contaminated.

"We are really encouraging backyard flock producers to practice really good biosecurity," Pabilonia said. "It has been really challenging for our backyard and commercial poultry industries. If you have a lot of wild birds that are positive for this virus, and they are flying around, it is hard to prevent all possible routes of introduction of virus into the flock."