CALHOUN, Ga. — For the third time this year a commercial poultry operation in Georgia has been confirmed with highly pathogenic avian influenza, the Georgia Department of Agriculture, along with USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service reports.
This latest case, announced on Oct. 24, is in Gordon County, located in Northwest Georgia. Approximately 140,000 broilers were being housed on the affected premises.
“For the third time this year, highly pathogenic avian influenza has been confirmed in a commercial poultry operation here in Georgia,” Tyler Harper, Georgia’s agriculture commissioner, said in the announcement. “This poses a serious threat to Georgia’s number one industry and to the thousands of Georgians whose livelihoods depend on poultry production.”
“Our team is working around the clock to contain the spread and protect our flocks,” Harper added.
Per protocol, all commercial poultry operations in a 10 km. (6.2 mile) radius are under quarantine and will undergo surveillance and testing for two weeks. GDA’s Emergency Management and State Agricultural Response teams were immediately sent to the affected location and conducted the also protocol depopulation, cleaning, disinfection and disposal. These operations are continuing.
The broiler producer, upon noticing signs of HPAI, sent samples to the Georgia Poultry Laboratory Network where a positive HPAI detection was confirmed and was also confirmed by testing conducted by the USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratory.
This case is the fifth overall reported in Georgia in 2025. Since this ongoing HPAI outbreak began in 2022, 340,000 birds have been affected in Georgia, and more than 182 million birds nationwide.
APHIS, on Oct. 24, reported that for the previous 30 days there have been 64 confirmed flocks in the United States, of these 33 have been commercial flocks, and 31 backyard flocks, affected 6.56 million birds.
