Form of avian flu found at a Northeast Texas chicken farm

SULPHUR SPRINGS, Texas—Texas and federal agriculture authorities are testing birds and poultry in a Northeast Texas county after inspectors detected a low-pathogenic form of avian flu at a poultry farm.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says the H7N1 influenza was found last week during routine surveillance of a commercial breeder’s flock of about 24,000 chickens in Hopkins County, about 100 miles southwest of Texarkana, Texas..

Authorities now are testing other poultry within about 6 miles of the Hopkins County farm.

Federal officials last week confirmed a similar occurrence at a turkey farm in southwestern Missouri but said it poses no risk to the food chain.

The low- pathogenic flu is different from the high-pathogenic virus that resulted in the loss of nearly 50 million birds in the Midwest in 2015.