Nearly 1.8 million chickens will be killed after bird flu was detected at an egg-laying operation in Weld County, a major resurgence on a commercial farm of the disease that has already seen more than 6 million birds culled.
Gov. Jared Polis verbally declared a disaster declaration for the facility over the long holiday weekend. The move activates the state’s emergency operations plan and makes additional resources available to respond to the outbreak.
A spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Agriculture declined to name the facility.
The mass culling — or “depopulation,” as the state described it — is the second-largest in a commercial flock since bird flu was first detected in Colorado in early 2002. In June 2022, an outbreak at a commercial poultry facility, also in Weld County, resulted in more than 1.9 million birds being culled.