Michigan hit by worst US avian flu outbreak

Michigan is the latest state to be hit by the worst US bird flu outbreak in history.

Officials with the Department of Natuarl Resources (DNR) are also worried about wild birds like ducks and swans coming down with the avian flu.

Also, as the days become warmer in summer, more ultraviolet light from sunshine and drier conditions combine to shorten the virus' life span and kill it, according to David Swayne of the US Department of Agriculture's Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory had earlier said.

So far over 51 million birds had been infected, with the majority of infections in Iowa and Minnesota, figures from the Michigan agriculture department showed. The outbreak had hit over 29 million birds including 24 million egg-laying chicken and 3.8 million young chicken raised to be egg layers.

According to Lee Hudson, co-owner of Hudson Egg Farm, a large Onondaga County poultry producer, restricting farm visitors was the most important way to keep avian influenza from spreading, Rapid News Network reported.

He added, until one could be sure that there had been no transference from the wild bird population migrating through the state, everything needed to be done to minimse the exposure for the state's domestic birds.