{"id":11379,"date":"2026-01-28T19:01:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T01:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/?p=11379"},"modified":"2026-01-28T19:01:04","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T01:01:04","slug":"kansas-experiences-worst-bird-flu-outbreak-in-the-nation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/2026\/01\/28\/kansas-experiences-worst-bird-flu-outbreak-in-the-nation\/","title":{"rendered":"Kansas experiences worst bird flu outbreak in the nation"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"panel body-content\"><div class=\"panel__container\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/kstatecollegian.com\/2026\/01\/21\/kansas-experiences-worst-bird-flu-outbreak-in-the-nation\/#:~:text=Kansas%20is%20experiencing%20the%20worst,on%20quarantine%20for%20exposure%20protection.\">K State<\/a> Over 400,000 birds reportedly affected with highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), with the number currently rising.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Kansas is experiencing the worst bird flu outbreak since 2023, affecting more than 10 counties, with three being forced to quarantine commercial and non-commercial backyards. Counties like Pottawatomie County, Greenwood County, Nemaha County and more have relied on quarantine for exposure protection.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Heather Lansdowne, director of communications for the Kansas Department of Agriculture, defines HPAI as a \u201crapidly spreading viral disease that is highly contagious in poultry and has a very high death rate among infected birds.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There have been multiple outbreaks of the disease since 2021, and recently, cases have begun to appear throughout Kansas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBeginning in mid-December, we have seen several new cases across the state from north central Kansas to southeast Kansas,\u201d Lansdowne said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lansdowne refers to a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.agriculture.ks.gov\/divisions-programs\/division-of-animal-health\/animal-diseases\/avian-influenza\">map<\/a>&nbsp;presented on their website where poultry owners can determine if their location is within a current \u201ccontrol area.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Clinical assistant professor, Dr. Lance Noll, describes the outbreak as linked to \u201cwild bird migrations,\u201d which explains the reasons for HPAI appearing at various times between 2021 and now.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAs they [birds] begin their fall migrations across the continent, the state usually faces an increased risk of HPAI introduction and spread,\u201d Noll said. \u201cWe kind of saw a reemergence of it back in 2021, and it really hits again every season.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>K State Over 400,000 birds reportedly affected with highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), with the number currently rising.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Kansas is experiencing the worst bird flu outbreak since 2023, affecting more than 10 counties, with three being forced to quarantine commercial and non-commercial backyards. Counties like Pottawatomie County, Greenwood County, Nemaha County and more have relied on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-avian-influenza"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11379"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11380,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11379\/revisions\/11380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}