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Is it safe to eat chicken and eggs and drink milk? Answers to your most pressing questions about the latest bird flu outbreak
Fresh eggs and chickens in a henhouse. (Credit: Africa images)
A two-year-old strain of bird flu has heightened concerns in Georgia and the rest of the country after the virus recently spread to dairy cows.
Here’s what you need to know about the virus and its impact on Georgia and the rest of the country.
What are the symptoms of this flu in humans?
Eye redness, fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, muscle or body aches and pneumonia. Some people may have no symptoms at all but still have the flu.
Should I be worried?
Any case of H5N1 is a concern because it is highly dangerous to humans although it doesn’t seem to be easily transmissible between people, the director-general of the World Health Organization said earlier this month. The two U.S. cases that have been reported have been mild, but H5N1 infections outside of this country have had high death rates.
Is H5N1 deadly to humans?
Nearly 900 laboratory-confirmed cases of human infection with H5N1 were reported in 23 countries between January 2003 and February 2024, according to the World Health Organization. Of those who were infected, 462 died.
So, bottom line, is it safe to eat chicken and eggs, and drink milk in Georgia?
“Any milk products for sale at your local grocery store, consumers can and should feel confident in the safety of those products as well as chicken and eggs,” Matthew Agvent, a spokesman for the Georgia Department of Agriculture, told State Affairs.
What is the current strain of bird flu that is causing so much concern?
It is Influenza A/H5N1, a highly pathogenic avian influenza or HPAI. It was first detected in 1996 and has since re-emerged and spread over the years. Outbreaks have become more common due to the rapid growth and frequent movement of the world’s poultry population.
How is this bird flu different from previous ones?
This latest outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza has been ongoing since 2022 and is the largest outbreak in recent history — impacting both domestic poultry and livestock as well as wild birds and some mammal species. More information about specific strains of avian influenza is available here.
How bad is the outbreak in the nation’s poultry industry?
Since its start on Feb. 8, 2022, 90.8 million birds in the United States have been destroyed after being infected. HPAI has been found in 1,128 flocks in 48 states. Of those, 483 flocks have been commercial and 645 flocks have been backyard. A commercial flock has 1,000 or more birds. A backyard flock has fewer.
In Georgia, roughly 35,000 birds had to be destroyed over the last two years due to the virus, Agvent told State Affairs. A complete picture of the ongoing outbreak in domestic poultry is available at USDA’s website.
Aside from the three reported counties, are there other cases of bird flu in Georgia?
In November 2023, a case of HPAI was found in Sumter County at a commercial waterfowl operation. Outbreaks occurred in backyard flocks in Henry and Toombs County in 2022.
What about dairy cows?
Georgia has had no reported or confirmed cases of HPAI in dairy cattle to date. State agriculture officials are working with dairy producers, veterinarians, and the National Animal Health Laboratory Network to use the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s new tracking, reporting, and movement requirements outlined in the federal order issued on April 24th. HPAI confirmations have been detected in 33 dairy cattle herds across eight states so far, according to the USDA. At this point, the USDA has not reported any deaths attributable to HPAI in dairy cattle.
Which states have found bird flu in dairy cows?
As of mid-April, the strain of flu known as Type A H5N1 has been found in at least 26 dairy herds in Idaho, Kansas, Michigan, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas and South Dakota. Here’s the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest detection data.
What precautions is Georgia taking to prevent the virus from spreading?
Since the beginning of this outbreak, Georgia poultry producers have implemented enhanced biosecurity measures and have been very successful in protecting commercial poultry flocks in Georgia.
Have questions? Contact Tammy Joyner on X @lvjoyner or at [email protected].
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Tips for Georgia voters ahead of primary election day
About 8% of Georgia voters have already cast their ballots in the primary election, either through in-person early voting or absentee ballots. If you’re one of the 6.5 million active voters in Georgia who have yet to cast a vote, here are some reminders to ensure things run smoothly on election day: Not sure who …
After years of harassment, election workers head into the primary more confident about their safety
Death threats and harassing phone calls and emails got so bad for Douglas County’s top election official that he stopped using the front entrance to the election office building.
“It all started in the aftermath of the 2020 [presidential] election and conspiracy theories around elections,” said Milton Kidd, director of elections and voter registration for Douglas, just west of Atlanta.
Although police were notified, Kidd said, he didn’t get protection. The harassment continued from people who believed false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. To this day, Kidd still takes different routes home and he rarely tells anyone — including his doctors — what he does for a living.
Election workers nationwide have been under siege for the last four years as people continue to believe the 2020 election was stolen, ultimately making election workers like Kidd scapegoats.
Heading into Tuesday’s Georgia primary, however, Kidd feels better about his safety and that of his nine-person staff.
“The vitriol of this election seems to be less,” Kidd said. Still, there will be police at the county’s 25 precincts, he said.
State and local election officials have increased efforts to prepare election staff around the state to deal with safety risks that may occur at polls during this year’s elections.
“We get together with local law enforcement, local elections officials, and we game out things like, What happens if a fistfight breaks out among the voters? What do you do with a bomb threat? Who do you contact if there’s a protest outside a precinct?” Hassinger told State Affairs.
The Secretary of State’s office has conducted about a half-dozen regional tabletop sessions across Georgia leading up to Tuesday’s election, said Mike Hassinger, the agency’s public information officer for elections.
A new Brennan Center survey of local election officials nationwide found that 92% have taken steps since 2020 to protect voters, election workers and election infrastructure from threats and violence in 2024.
The latest Brennan survey released this month found nearly 4 in 10 local election officials nationwide had experienced threats, harassment or abuse for doing their jobs. In April, the Department of Justice’s Election Threats Task Force said it was investigating dozens of threats against election workers and had already convicted 13 people.
Two Fulton County workers — Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss — were unwittingly thrust into the national spotlight after President Donald Trump and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s lawyer, accused them of ballot fraud.
Public harassment got so bad that Freeman had to leave her home. The two women testified before Congress in June 2022 about how their lives were upended after Trump’s accusations about them. Giuliani was later ordered to pay the mother and daughter over $148 million for defamation.
In June 2023, the Georgia Elections Board cleared Freeman and Moss of the election fraud claims, saying they were “false and unsubstantiated.”
“It’s disgusting the treatment of election officials,” said Kidd, who used to work in Fulton County and was on the panel that hired Moss. He later trained Moss to become an elections worker.
Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s top election official, later received death threats and had to send his family members away for a while after he refused Trump’s request to find 11,000 more votes to get the Georgia results overturned. State officials stood their ground against the president.
In Georgia, the 2020 presidential ballots were recounted three times, and numerous 2020 lawsuits challenging the election were dismissed, yet the issue stubbornly persisted.
New security measures
In addition to making sure election workers are safe, the state is using a new method called parallel monitoring to ensure the machines are secure.
“We go into a county, pull out one of their machines and do a test on it. We do a logic and accuracy test to make sure that there’s no malware, that the software is up-to-date and secure and hasn’t been tampered with,” Hassinger said.
Parallel monitoring was used during advanced voting and will be done during Tuesday’s primary.
“From just an election security point of view, we’re doing something fairly unprecedented,” Hassinger said.
Hassinger insists the new method is not in response to election integrity concerns that emerged after the 2020 and 2022 elections.
“There have been people who maintain that these election machines can be hacked. Some of them are election deniers, and some of them have been making these accusations in lawsuits that predate the 2016 and the 2020 elections,” he said.
The Georgia Election Integrity Act — which governs how, when and where Georgia voters can cast ballots — was a response to public concerns over election integrity during the 2020 presidential election.
The extra measures have state elections officials feeling “very confident” going into Tuesday’s primary, Hassinger said.
Still, the safety of poll workers remains a top concern.
The Douglas County office has met with the local sheriff, city police and the school system police, Kidd said. The staff also has reviewed reporting requirements that show whom to contact in case of emergencies, he added.
Atlanta voter Katherine Hernacki has been a poll worker before and remembers the tense mood surrounding the Jan. 5, 2021, special runoff election when Raphael Warnock defeated incumbent Kelly Loeffler for Georgia’s U.S. Senate seat.
“I felt like the temperature was really rising and everyone was saying everything will be fine. And I did not think everything would be fine,” Hernacki said. The next day, the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol occurred in Washington, D.C.
Even so, the Atlanta attorney said, “I’m less concerned about security in terms of safety at the polls and more concerned about preservation of the right to actually cast a ballot.”
Poll worker turnover
Between 2004 and 2022, poll worker turnover nationwide has grown from 28% to 39%, according to the Washington, D.C.-based think tank Bipartisan Policy Center, due to increased hostility and greater complexity of the job.
Low pay and uncertainty over the job’s potential danger has made getting and keeping poll workers in recent years difficult, Kidd said. He said his office has seen a 60% to 70% turnover rate since 2020.
Those kinds of numbers have political analyst Niles Francis wondering if there’ll be enough poll workers for the general election in November.
Starting pay for poll workers in Douglas is $15 an hour, Kidd said. In Georgia, poll workers earn, on average, $19 an hour, compared to $24 an hour nationally, according to the job-posting website ZipRecruiter.
“My concern is — and I’m sure this all will probably be verified once we get closer to the election — how many people actually want to [be election workers] this time?” said Francis, who writes a newsletter about Georgia politics called Peach State Politics.
Kidd added, “Elections used to be fun. It’s not fun. It’s just a job now.”
related stories:
- All you need to know heading into the May 21 primary
- Turnout battle: More Republicans casting ballots in early voting for general primary
- Education activist Beth Majeroni challenges state Sen. Ben Watson in GOP primary
- Democratic incumbents vie for redrawn House district seat
- Senate District 53 incumbent Colton Moore draws criticism, challengers in his re-election bid
- Mesha Mainor expected to face uphill battle to retain seat — even against little-known competitors
- New middle Georgia House district up for grabs due to influential incumbent’s departure
Have questions, comments or tips? Contact Tammy Joyner on X @lvjoyner or at [email protected].
Weekend read: 70 years ago, Georgia bucked landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision
When the U.S. Supreme Court threw open the doors of public schools to Black students 70 years ago, Southern states — such as Georgia — did not go quietly when Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka became the law of the land.
“For six or seven years nothing happened. It was like it hadn’t come down,” said Charles Bullock, professor of public and international affairs at the University of Georgia.
Some states took action to desegregate schools, “but the Deep South didn’t,” Bullock said. There was “a lot of litigation,” he added. “Someone said as long as we can legislate, we can segregate. So nothing much happens until January of 1961.”
That is when a federal judge ordered the immediate admission of Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter to the University of Georgia.
“Georgians accept the challenge and will not tolerate the mixing of races,” Georgia’s then-governor, Herman Talmadge, said when the decision came down.
Talmadge went on to deride the high court, saying its “views on sociology will not make any difference.”
He wasn’t alone.
In Virginia, U.S. Sen. Harry Byrd issued a call for “massive resistance” to the Supreme Court’s decision. In Mississippi, U.S. Sen. James Eastland declared that “the South will not abide by nor obey this legislative decision by a political body.”
Brown towers as one of the most significant Supreme Court rulings in American history. Students from the era attended a 70th-anniversary event held at Burnett Administrative Center in Topeka on Thursday.
Tiffany Anderson, the first African American female superintendent hired by Topeka Public Schools, said the decision allowed for “tremendous progress” in the area of equitability simply by expanding educational opportunities.
“Whether or not you’re a parent of color or in poverty, you have access,” she said. “Those are ways to close the opportunity gaps.”
Don Perkins, though, said the district’s race relations had not evolved in a meaningful way. His children, who attended Topeka Public Schools in the 1980s, were exploited by the district for their athletic abilities, he said.
“I always smelled the chlorine but just wasn’t allowed to swim.”
He remembers his first taste of racial integration as a Black student at East Topeka Junior High.
“I got a lot of support from students, but not necessarily teachers,” said Perkins, who was elected student council president but couldn’t get any support from educators for activities.
Perkins recounted how the ruling hardly erased discrimination. For instance, Black students were barred from Topeka High’s indoor swimming pool when he attended from 1955 to 1957. “I always smelled the chlorine but just wasn’t allowed to swim,” he said.
The U.S. Supreme Court decision is rooted deep in Topeka, forever stitched in Kansas’ tapestry.
A moving mural by artist Michael Young commemorating the decision — depicting teachers, students, protesters, soldiers — can be found outside the old Supreme Court room in the Statehouse. About a mile south, a museum commemorates the case and its aftermath.
States challenging school segregation in the early 1950s included Kansas, South Carolina, Delaware and Virginia, as did Washington, D.C. The mounting litigation was bundled into a single case — Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.
The Kansas case was filed on behalf of 13 Black Topeka parents and their school-aged children who were forced to attend segregated schools. The students would often have to walk for hours, braving the elements, when white classrooms were closer.
The court ultimately declared state-sanctioned segregation in public schools unconstitutional after concluding the plaintiffs were not allotted “equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the 14th Amendment.” “Separate but equal” was determined to be “inherently unequal.”
The decision reverberated. The high court then decided Briggs v. Elliott, finding desegregation in South Carolina was unconstitutional. Again the issue was the distance to the classrooms — some Black students walked eight miles each way to and from school after the local government refused to provide bussing.
The price of desegregation in South Carolina was steep. The petitioners in the Briggs case lost their jobs and their land. A pastor who championed the cause had his home burned to the ground. The federal judge who sided with petitioners was forced to leave the state by order of the South Carolina House of Representatives.
Pushing for change
Marquis Burnett grew up in the shadow of his late father, McKinley, a prominent Civil Rights figure. While serving as the Topeka chapter NAACP president, McKinley Burnett spearheaded the recruitment of the 13 Black families that were plaintiffs in the Brown v. Board case.
“I’m not saying the case wouldn’t have happened, but if it wasn’t for him it wouldn’t have happened when it did,” Marquis Burnett said of his father. “A lot of people think it was the Brown case, but it was actually the Topeka NAACP’s case that established integration. They’re the ones who filed the case and picked Brown [and the other plaintiffs].”
His father consistently pressed the Topeka school board for racial integration, and the board responded by drastically altering meeting times in hopes he wouldn’t show. He was also met with threats of physical violence from board members, Burnett said.
“On several occasions, board members wanted to resolve it with a fistfight,” Burnett said. “But he said, ‘No, we’ll let the courts settle it.’”
Burnett said he’s skeptical that the current conservative-leaning U.S. Supreme Court would have rendered the same verdict in the Brown ruling as its 1954 judicial counterparts.
Burnett said the Brown v. Board ruling was not necessarily viewed favorably by Black teachers at Topeka’s segregated elementary schools, who were concerned about the fate of those schools after the ruling came down.
“They thought they would lose their jobs, but that didn’t really happen because our teachers were exceptional,” he said. “We had good teachers, and that is something that should definitely be emphasized.”
Marquis Burnett planned to attend the event Thursday at Burnett Administrative Center on Thursday, a building named in honor of his father.
‘Culture of community’
Beryl New began attending Monroe Elementary in the wake of the Brown ruling. The school was eventually transformed into the Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park.
New said teachers at Monroe embraced a “culture of community” and a “high expectation for excellence” in the classroom. As for the lasting impact of the Supreme Court’s ruling, New drew a parallel to current hotbed issues.
“This concept of ‘school choice’ has a whole different meaning today. I can choose to send my children to a private school or a public school or choose to go to the public school I want to,” she said. “Back then, there was no choice if you were a child of color in Topeka. So removing that right from tax-paying citizens was a great injustice.”
After the ruling, New said, many parents did not want to move their children to an integrated school “because of the loving atmosphere” at the segregated schools they attended.
“But if they wanted to do it, they ought to have the right to do it,” New said. “And I think that’s what the Topeka case really highlighted.”
At the time of the Brown ruling, white parents in Topeka “did not want Black teachers to teach their children,” New said.
“But many of the Black teachers who taught at the segregated schools had advanced degrees,” she said. “So you couldn’t get a higher quality of teacher, but their skin color was the issue.”
New’s “pleasant memories” of Monroe Elementary stood in stark contrast to her experience at racially integrated Topeka High School in the 1960s. New said her counselor at Topeka High bluntly told her “she wasn’t college material” and should instead enroll in secretary school.
New’s education credentials include 12 years as an English teacher, followed by several years as principal at Lawrence High School. Then, New moved to Highland Park High School, where she became the first Black female head principal in the history of Topeka Public Schools’ main three high schools.
Brown v. Board’s lasting impacts
Visiting from Charlottesville, Virginia, this week, Aleen Carey said she felt goose bumps Tuesday evening while taking in the majestic atmosphere of the former Monroe Elementary School building.
As a former educator, she said that the Brown ruling holds a deeper meaning for her — and that she taught her former students about the “Charlottesville Twelve,” which has similarities to the case.
“As a Black resident of the United States, this historical place has made such a difference in the lives of my family and every other Black person in the United States,” Carey said. “I just wanted to be able to say that I had stood here and seen it for myself. This is more important than anything else I could be doing on my visit.
“What it means to be a Black person and have the education I’ve had, you can’t put that into words what something like this means.”
It was a joyous moment for Carey, but she also remains concerned about political agendas seeking to roll back strides made during the Civil Rights Movement.
Former President George W. Bush was on hand in 2004 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling and the official public opening of the Brown v. Board museum.
“So even though [Bush] wasn’t my favorite president, the respect shown to say this is a very important piece of American history and to be here means something,” she said.
Carey also remains concerned about diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) at state universities in Virginia.
Lawmakers in many states have proposed or enacted legislation aimed at rolling back DEI initiatives at public colleges and universities.
In Kansas, the GOP-controlled Legislature passed House Bill 2105 in April — prohibiting postsecondary educational institutions from using DEI practices in their admissions, educational aid and employment decisions.
Undoing the racial equity strides that followed the Brown decision is unfathomable for Carey to contemplate.
“It’s unbelievable, sad, infuriating and frustrating,” she said. And it’s really hard to think about when you’re at a place like this, knowing the courage it took to make Brown v. Board happen.”
Newsletter editor Issac Morgan contributed to this story.
Matt Resnick is a statehouse reporter for State Affairs Pro Kansas/Hawver’s Capitol Report. Reach him at [email protected].
Issac Morgan is the newsletter editor for State Affairs. You can contact him on X or at [email protected].
Turnout battle: More Republicans casting ballots in early voting for general primary
The Gist
Whether they’re concerned with a Georgia Supreme Court race or women’s reproductive rights, voters showed up to cast early ballots this week in the Georgia primary election. And Republicans embraced the opportunity more than Democrats, continuing a trend in recent years.
“This isn’t Democratic voters becoming Republicans. This isn’t even a massive turnout of Republicans,” Atlanta political strategist Fred Hicks told State Affairs. “What it is is Democrats are disaffected and they’re staying home in key blocs, particularly African Americans.”
At Chastain Park Recreation Center, Atlanta attorney Stephen Mooney cast his vote with an eye on a Georgia Supreme Court race.
“I felt it was important to cast a vote. We have one candidate who’s putting his personal views over just calling balls and strikes. I want to make my voice known,” Mooney said.
Democratic U.S. Rep. John Barrow, who is running a campaign centered on protecting women’s reproductive rights, is challenging incumbent Justice Andrew Pinson.
Mooney, who identifies as Republican, said he typically votes early in elections. For the upcoming cycle, he said he’s concerned with crime, the economy and world affairs, including the conflict in Gaza.
Katherine Hernacki, who mostly votes Democrat, said she tries to cast ballots at every opportunity to make sure her registration didn’t expire and to preserve her vote.
“I would say that right now one of the biggest motivating factors for me is protecting women’s rights to reproductive freedom,” Hernacki, 50, told State Affairs.
She and Mooney both said current Georgia state officials have been doing well, specifically when it comes to the economy.
What’s Happening
As of Friday morning, according to GeorgiaVotes.com, 453,035 Georgians had cast early votes. Republicans outpaced Democrats, 242,140 to 203,305. There were 7,545 nonpartisan ballots cast.
The Secretary of State could not provide the party breakdown of primary election turnout for 2020 and 2022.
The total turnout for the 2024 primary is 36% lower than it was in 2022.
“This will be the fourth straight statewide election where Republicans have outpaced Democrats,” Hicks said.
More Republican voters turned out in the 2022 primary and general election as well as the presidential primary in March and now this one, said Hicks, who has worked on Democratic and Republican campaigns across the country for the past 20 years.
There was a little positive news for Democrats: The Georgia Secretary of State’s office said more Democrats — 15,008 — voted absentee than Republicans. Records show 14,835 Republicans cast mail-in ballots.
Why It Matters
Primaries historically have had low turnout, and this election cycle is no different. As of Friday morning, 6.4% of Georgia’s 7 million registered voters had cast ballots in person or by mail.
Ahead of the general election in November, primaries give voters an idea of who the candidates are. As campaigns continue, citizens get an early opportunity to form their political opinions.
What’s Next?
Friday, May 17, is the last day of early voting in Georgia’s primary election. Polls will reopen Tuesday, May 21, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. The general election will happen Nov. 5.
Related stories:
Have questions, comments or tips? Contact Tammy Joyner on X @lvjoyner or at [email protected].
Contact Nava Rawls at [email protected].