Bird flu outbreak drives Nebraska to cull 1.8 million more chickens

The US has seen its worst outbreak of bird flu in seven years, and Nebraska needs to kill more chickens to stop it.

The Nebraska Department of Agriculture said Saturday that bird flu was found on an egg laying farm in northeast Nebraska.

Agriculture officials are encouraging poultry producers to look out for signs of the bird flu and report any cases to state or federal officials.

In terms of the number of birds affected by the outbreak, Nebraska is the second worst state after Iowa.

More than 50 million birds have died in 46 states so far this year, mostly from being slaughtered to control the spread of the disease. In 2015, 50 million birds died.

Humans are not likely to contract the virus. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, human cases are extremely rare due to the fact that proper cooking of poultry and eggs will killbacteria and Viruses.

Egg and poultry meat prices have gone up due to the bird flu outbreak.

The spread seems to be easy to spread among wild birds, which makes it harder to contain. Waterfowl can carry the flu virus long distances and have the ability to pass it on to birds.