U of M Lab Swamped With Bird Flu Testing

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A University of Minnesota lab is getting a flood of samples from turkeys to test for a form of bird flu that's deadly to poultry, amid an outbreak in the state.

Technicians at the university's Veterinary Diagnostics Lab have worked double shifts and weekends in the past four weeks. They test about 100 samples a day for the H5N2 strain of avian influenza that has hit at least nine turkey farms in Minnesota.

At eight of those farms, roughly 373,000 turkeys have died from the disease itself or been killed to prevent the disease from spreading.

Officials say the public health risk is low and that there's no danger to the food supply. No human infections with the H5N2 virus have been reported in the U.S.