New York on Friday ordered a weeklong shutdown of all live bird markets in New York City, Westchester and Long Island after seven cases of avian flu were detected at bird markets in the city.
The order came after seven cases of bird flu were found in poultry during routine inspections of live bird markets in the New York City boroughs of the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens.
The agency said there have been 67 confirmed cases of bird flu in humans in the U.S., with illnesses mild and mostly detected among farmworkers who were exposed to sick poultry or daily cows.
In New York, live bird markets where the virus was detected have to dispose of all poultry in a sanitary manner, according to the order.
The first bird flu death in the U.S. was reported last month in Louisiana, with health officials saying the person was older than 65, had underlying medical problems and had been in contact with sick and dead birds in a backyard flock.
