Minnesota Bird Flu Effects State Ag Budget

The highly pathogenic H5N2 strain has been identified on 49 Minnesota farms

in 17 counties and has affected more than 2.6 million birds in the state. Now, lawmakers have pulled back the state ag budget to give it another look on the heels of what some feel will be huge financial losses.

State Representative Paul Anderson, chairs the House Agriculture Policy Committee.

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At any given time Minnesota has about 15 million turkeys in production. So far, 2.6 million turkeys are dead as a result of the flu. That means 17.3 percent, or one in every six birds in production now has died.