At the same time, high prices of poultry profucts and eggs in grocery stores - exacerbated by the impact of bird flu on flocks - are driving more shoppers to consider purchasing from local producers.

The latest data from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service of the USDA's Avian Influenza Tracker shows a significant impact in Ohio over the past 30 days.

Avian influenza (HPAI) was detected in 1,432,000 chickens in Mercer County, , according to the USDA, just weeks after the Ohio Department of Agriculture confirmed the infection of 931,302 birds in

Avian influenza, commonly known as bird flu, is suspected to be spreading among wild birds in Stark County, according to ODNR.

More than two million birds in the Miami Valley have been “depopulated” due to highly pathogenic avian influenza. The Ohio Department of Agriculture reported 2,052,773 birds have been “depopulated” in the Miami Valley because of H5N1 since Jan.

Bird flu has been detected in another commercial flock in western Ohio. The USDA confirmed that 1.4 million egg-laying chickens in Mercer County are affected by the virus. This comes weeks after avian influenza was detected in a large flock in nearby Darke County.

Ohio Department of Health director Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff has cautioned Ohioans to continue to take these illnesses seriously.

More cases of the avian influenza, commonly known as bird flu, have been detected in Ohio in recent weeks. According to the United Nations, it has killed more than 300 million birds worldwide and one person in the U.

The spread of H5N1 into new species alarms researchers who say it could reassort in a new species, like pigs, leading to more severe human infection.

Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) has been confirmed in two commercial meat turkey flocks in Ohio and one commercial broiler flock in Maryland. According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), all three flock infections were confirmed on January 14.

The latest poultry outbreak confirmation from the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) includes a detection in Georgia at a broiler farm that houses 45,500 birds in Elbert County, located in the northeastern part of the state.

Osterholm says that the primary kind of birds impacted by the flu is migratory waterfowl, like geese and ducks, and these birds often hang out in farm fields where they defecate. Then, the wind picks up particles of the infected feces, spreading the virus far and wide.