As bird flu cases mount in Pennsylvania, USDA scrambles to rehire employees fired on Elon Musk’s recommendation

More than 2.3 million birds from commercial and backyard flocks in Pennsylvania have been affected with avian influenza so far this year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

The latest instance of avian influenza in Pennsylvania has been reported in Philadelphia.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), more than 1,000 birds at a live bird market in Philadelphia have been affected with bird flu or H5N1.

With this latest reported case, a total of 2,346,270 birds from seven commercial flocks and nine backyard flocks in the state have been affected so far this year, according to the APHIS.

Here is the current list of bird flu cases reported so far in Pennsylvania this year:

Adams County

Feb. 4: Non-poultry, 30 birds affected

Butler County

Feb. 5: Non-poultry, 610 birds affected

Cumberland County

Feb. 5: Commercial broiler production, 26,400 birds affected

Feb. 11: Commercial duck meat bird production, 20,000 birds affected

Dauphin County

Feb. 4: Commercial table egg layer, 1,975,300 birds affected

Lancaster County

February 6: Poultry, 14,900 birds affected

Feb. 7: Poultry, 610 birds affected

Feb. 11: Commercial broiler production, 80,000 birds affected

Feb. 12: Poultry, 600 birds affected

Lebanon County

Feb. 7: Commercial broiler production, 53,500 birds affected

Feb. 6: Commercial table egg layer, 85,100 birds affected

Lehigh County

Jan. 28: Poultry, 48,000 birds affected

Luzerne County

Feb. 20: Non-poultry, 90 birds affected

Monroe County

Jan. 30: Non-poultry, 30 birds affected

Philadelphia County

Feb. 24: Live bird market, 1,100 birds affected

On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced it plans to spend up to $1 billion in Commodity Credit Corporation funds to try to reduce the spread of the highly pathogenic bird flu in poultry. The USDA scrambled earlier this month to rehire employees working on bird flu issues, who were among the thousands of federal employees eliminated on the recommendations of billionaire non-government official Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is working to carry out President Trump’s promise to streamline and reshape the federal government.

Bird flu has disrupted the work of poultry farmers for years and began infecting dairy herds last year. A recent spike in egg prices has led to renewed public attention to the disease.

Information from the Associated Press and Pennsylvania Capital-Star was used in this report.