While Pennsylvania has not fully recovered from the 2022 avian flu outbreak, agricultural experts say it's time to let the poultry industry spread its wings.
From fluffy Silkie chickens to ‘mini’ Bantam chickens — birds that tend to be a quarter to half the size of a standard chicken — the Pennsylvania Farm Show welcomed a variety of poultry, even turkeys, to Harrisburg last week
High Path Avian Influenza (HPAI), more commonly called avian or bird flu, is a highly contagious respiratory and neurological virus that attacks birds' nervous systems and can kill entire flocks in a few days. Some researchers compare the virus to pneumonia because affected birds gasp for air, but others say the symptoms are more similar to rabies.
Pennsylvania's fight against the virus started in April 2022 when the state Department of Agriculture confirmed it in a flock of commercial chickens in Lancaster County.
There are no recent confirmed cases of bird flu in Northeast or Central Pennsylvania, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. As of Jan. 21, the state confirmed one affected commercial flock and three backyard flocks for a total of 35,540 birds.
In the last 30 days, USDA reports there are 67 confirmed flocks with bird flu for a total of 1.48 million affected birds across the nation. Twenty one states, including Hawaii and Alaska, do not have any cases of bird flu. A majority of cases are in backyard flocks.
The Pennsylvania Game Commission reported that about 400 snow geese in Northampton County likely died of the virus in December. Whether the birds definitively had the virus has not been yet confirmed by the USDA.
Pennsylvania Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding listed bird flu as one of the state’s top priorities for 2026.
Redding told WVIA News at the show last week his department will continue to fund diagnostic and baseline testing, as well as work with the state's game commission to track cases among wild birds. He also said Pennsylvania’s commitment to biosecurity and other measures limits the spread of the virus.
“We've been fortunate that the biosecurity … we've worked at for the last two and a half years is working. That's proven to be really important … We’re doing the right things,” Redding said.
The department will also keep up its HPAI Recovery Reimbursement Grant program, which has $2 million in funding and can supplement $25,000 for farmers' losses due to outbreaks.
Pennsylvania is the only state in the nation with those recovery funds, Redding said.
Biosecurity educator: ‘It’s time to bring [the birds] back for … business and industry’
Capri Stiles-Mikesell, a biosecurity educator with Pennsylvania 4-H and Penn State Extension, showed birds across different stages of the life cycle at this year’s show. Some birds, just a few hours old, rested in an incubator, while birds a few days old were free to walk around a bucket sectioned off by a rope to allow visitors to watch from afar.
“It looks like we had seven that hatched overnight. And there's five more that are still drying off, and so we have to rotate them through the observation pens, so there's no food and water over where they actually come out of the eggs,” Stiles-Mikesell said while pointing at the incubator in the center of the room.
Stiles-Mikesell said the newly hatched birds will be moved temporarily to a temperature controlled brooder for additional observation before being moved to the large bucket. Brooders allow farmers to ensure their flock stays warm while their feathers have not fully come in.
She said she was happy to be able to bring show poultry back to Harrisburg. Last year, Stiles-Mikesell ran a booth with stuffed animals to teach kids how to protect their own animals by designating a line of separation. Now, she can model the real thing for kids.
“We're very thankful you will see that we do have a line of separation, which is designated by this black rope, and that's just to keep the foot traffic from coming back in here, because they'll carry pathogens on their feet. And so we keep all these beautiful birds safe,” Stiles-Mikesell said.
Stiles-Mikesell said the birds, including those that were shown as part of youth showmanship competitions, will be returned to their prospective farms after 14 to 21 days of quarantine.
She went over some basics of biosecurity, which can protect humans, farms and livestock from infectious diseases. Designating a set pair of boots for dealing with animals and wiping them down with disinfectant after each use is a great way to cut down on the spread.
“It's all those little, tiny things that people can do that can help disease mitigation and help keep their flock safe. The other thing is to make sure that you keep the food and water stations close to the coop, because that discourages wild waterfowl from coming in and sharing a food source or a water source with the poultry that you have,” Stiles-Mikesell said.
Stiles-Mikesell said she believes Pennsylvania’s farmers cultivated a culture of biosecurity and that while bird flu has not gone away, the industry deserves to be able to participate in meaningful agricultural events like the farm show.
“The culture of raising chickens has changed … people are informed enough now that they can help disease mitigation … So, it's time to bring them (the birds) back for a continuity of business and industry," she said.
Besides supporting the local agricultural industry, the show needs its birds to show Pennsylvanians they can be farmers themselves.
"There are numerous farms around the state that this might be a hobby for them, but it's also added income ... There's a value to these birds, and there's a value to being able to bring them here, exhibit them and let people know and see how beautiful they are and inspire people to do small farming," Stiles-Mikesell said.
