POCOMOKE CITY, Md., March 7 (UPI) -- Maryland agriculture officials were killing more than 300,000 chickens Sunday and setting wider quarantine boundaries after confirming a pocket of avian flu.
The strain of bird-killing virus detected within one of the world's premier poultry raising regions, the Delmarva Peninsula, does not sicken humans yet threatens the main industry of the region, delawareonline.com reported.
Officials are including at least 71 farms within the latest quarantine area and killing 328,000 chickens at its center, containing 12 chicken houses.
The disease is the same one discovered in nearby Delaware nearly a month ago. That area still hopes to complete a full month without a new outbreak, meeting a basic health requirement on the road to being declared disease free.
In Maryland the quarantine area has been extended to a six-mile radius on both sides of U.S. 50 that reaches the Virginia border. Every one of the nearly 2,000 chicken farms in Delmarva are being tested for the virus.
The outbreak comes a few weeks before planting of corn and soybeans begins and should it not be contained, farmers will not be able to use the customary chicken litter as fertilizer, increasing fertilizer costs.
