1 March 2026
Right now there’s a perfect storm of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania with “all hands on deck” to stop it. Since 28 January 7.5 million birds have died in Pennsylvania.
USDA’s 30-day bird flu map shows that PA is the only state in serious trouble.
Several things combined to make this possible.
- Pennsylvania is the fourth largest egg-producing state (after Iowa, Ohio and Indiana).
- Lancaster County (LanCo) is the top egg-producing county in PA and one of the largest poultry and egg producers in the world.
- To achieve this volume the county has quite a few large industrial chicken farms. Some of these house more than a million birds making LanCo the most densely poultry-populated county in the U.S.
- Domestic chickens are highly susceptible to bird flu and this strain is especially deadly. It is called “highly pathogenic” or “high path.” (HPAI)
- This is the first virus that can jump directly from wild birds to poultry.
HPAI has been in the U.S. since 2022 so why did it affect so many chickens this February?
The theory is that this winter was so cold and the lakes and rivers so frozen that overwintering snow geese went to whatever open water they could find. Some snow geese found water near poultry farms in Lancaster County (perhaps the Susquehanna River). The flu probably jumped from infected snow geese to domestic chickens (illustration at top).
Dr. Hamberg from the PA Dept of Agriculture explains the challenges on a visit to Lancaster County this week.
The top five incidents were all egg-laying operations (see table below), that culled 6.7+ million birds.
We should expect the price of eggs to go up.
Read more about dead birds and the price of eggs in this vintage article from 2024: Dead Birds and the Price of Eggs.
Did you know that cats and cows can catch bird flu but not your feeder birds? See Cats, Cows and Cardinals: More info on Bird Flu.
And here’s that table I promised.
These top 5 HPIA outbreaks in Pennsylvania, 28 Jan through 28 Feb 2026, culled 6.7 million birds. They were all commercial egg-laying operations in Lancaster County. {Data is from USDA on 1 March 2026}| Confirmed | County Name | Production | Control Area Released | Birds Affected |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2/18/2026 | Lancaster | Commercial Table Egg Layer | Active | 1,451,700 |
| 2/17/2026 | Lancaster | Commercial Table Egg Layer | Active | 2,641,200 |
| 2/17/2026 | Lancaster | Commercial Table Egg Pullets | Active | 393,300 |
| 2/3/2026 | Lancaster | Commercial Table Egg Layer | Active | 722,100 |
| 1/28/2026 | Lancaster | Commercial Table Egg Layer | Active | 1,509,700 |
(*)See H5N1 current status at USDA: Confirmations of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in Commercial and Backyard Flocks