Bird flu prompts slaughter of 1.8M chickens in Nebraska

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Nebraska agriculture officials say another 1.8 million chickens must be killed after bird flu was found on a farm.

It’s the latest sign that the outbreak has kept spreading after having already prompted the slaughter of more than 50 million birds nationwide. The Nebraska Department of Agriculture said Saturday that the state’s 13th case of bird flu was found on an egg-laying farm in northeast Nebraska’s Dixon County. All the chickens on the Nebraska farm are being killed to limit the spread of the disease.

Officials say the virus presents little risk to human health because human cases are extremely rare, and infected birds aren’t allowed into the nation’s food supply.