Over 100,000 Ducks to Be Killed on New York Farm Due to Bird Flu Outbreak: ‘The Remedy Is to Put the Entire Flock Down’

Mar. 15, 2025

Ducks on a farm (stock image).Photo:Getty

Getty

More than 100,000 ducks at one New York farm are being euthanized due to an outbreak of the avian flu.

A flock of ducks (stock image).Getty

Although John Di Leonardo with Humane Long Island told the outlet that health officials are always weighing all the risks as “if this disease mutates” to “human-to-human transmission,” they could be “looking at the next pandemic.”

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There have been 67 confirmed human cases of avian flu in the U.S. since last year and one death — with 23 of the cases having been traced to “poultry farms and culling operations,” according to theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention.

Doug Corwin, the owner of Crescent Duck Farm, told the outlets that culling so many birds at his farm could have greater impacts, as it has led to uncertainty with his business, which has been open since 1908.

“I have done this all my life, and we are the last of this industry,” Corwin toldNYT. “It is gut-wrenching. You work your whole life for something, and then one day everything is gone.”

He said there was a “glimmer of hope” as the U.S. government has agreed to allow him to keep several thousand eggs, which may help him revive his flock in the future, per the outlets. Though, he voiced his hesitation to do so without a vaccine.

“I am not 100 percent certain I want to go through that unless the U.S.D.A. approves a vaccine for this virus,” he told the outlet. “I don’t want to go through all of this again.”

source: people.com