In this Jan. 17. 2016, photo, workers wearing contamination suits are driven to turkey houses on a farm along North Hickory Grove Road in Dubois, Ind. Frigid temperatures are hampering efforts to euthanize turkeys at several southwestern Indiana farms where a strain of bird flu was found last week, freezing the hoses used to spread a foam that suffocates the affected flocks, a spokeswoman for a state agency said Monday, Jan 18. (Sarah Ann Jump/The Herald via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
The Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Animal health officials investigating a bird flu strain that affected 10 turkey farms in southwestern Indiana have added 156,000 chickens to the list of thousands of birds being euthanized.
The Indiana State Board of Animal Health says the egg-laying chickens are at a high risk of contracting the H7N8 virus because they're housed at one of the 10 farms in Dubois County with infected turkeys.
Crews already were working to euthanize more than 245,000 turkeys to prevent the virus' spread. With the added chickens, the outbreak will bring about the deaths of about 401,000 birds.
Officials also have also added a precautionary 6-mile "surveillance zone" beyond the 6-mile control area created last week around the first turkey farm where the virus was found.
In this Jan. 17. 2016, photo, a worker is sprayed as part of the decontamination process at a farm in Dubois in Dubois, Ind. Frigid temperatures are hampering efforts to euthanize turkeys at several southwestern Indiana farms where a strain of bird flu was found last week, freezing the hoses used to spread a foam that suffocates the affected flocks, a spokeswoman for a state agency said Monday, Jan 18. (Sarah Ann Jump/The Herald via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
The Associated Press
In this Jan. 17. 2016, photo, a worker sprays a vehicle as part of the decontamination process before the vehicle could leave a farm in Dubois, Ind. Frigid temperatures are hampering efforts to euthanize turkeys at several southwestern Indiana farms where a strain of bird flu was found last week, freezing the hoses used to spread a foam that suffocates the affected flocks, a spokeswoman for a state agency said Monday, Jan 18. (Sarah Ann Jump/The Herald via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
The Associated Press