Nearly half a year after the state’s last detection of the virus, avian influenza has been found in a southern Minnesota turkey flock, according to animal health officials.
The Redwood County flock “showed signs of increased mortality” over the weekend, the Minnesota Board of Animal Health said. Testing confirmed the presence of the H5N1 virus, colloquially known as bird flu.
This is the first time the virus has been detected in Minnesota since April 23.
“Animal health officials and [the] industry have been working hard over the summer to eliminate the virus from quarantined sites so the state could officially declare freedom of the disease on Aug. 25, 2025,” the board said. “This detection resets Minnesota’s response teams and will draw responders back into the fight against avian influenza this fall.”
Earlier this month, the United States Department of Agriculture declared Minnesota’s dairy herds are currently unaffected by the bird flu virus after months of sampling. The virus was found in a dairy herd in March.
A nationwide bird flu outbreak that began at the end of 2024 and spread into 2025 sent egg prices soaring and resulted in the first human death linked to the virus in the United States. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz in January approved more than $1 million in state lottery money to research bird flu in wildlife. Two months later, he promised “a unified front around biosecurity and protection of our agricultural business and the health of Minnesotans.”
The Board of Animal Health said Wednesday “the risk to the public from this virus remains low currently.”
Note: The video above originally aired April 1, 2025.
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