Shapiro administration seeks to assure Pa. farmers affected by avian flu outbreak

by Ian Karbal, Pennsylvania Capital-Star
February 24, 2026

This story was changed on Feb. 26, 2025, at 12:26 p.m. to correct both Rep. Brett Miller’s district and party.

Pennsylvania is facing one of the most severe avian flu outbreaks in decades, decimating farmers’ flocks. Since the beginning of the year, more than 7.6 million birds across 26 flocks have been affected, mostly in Lancaster County. 

On Tuesday, Gov. Josh Shapiro, state Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding and elected officials from both parties met with farmers and poultry producers in Lancaster for a roundtable discussion about what aid the state is providing and what it may be able to do better.

Pennsylvania’s poultry industry brings in more than $7 billion annually, and is the largest sector of the state’s agriculture industry. Besides Lancaster County, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reports other outbreaks in Dauphin, Philadelphia and Bucks counties.

“We’re coordinating at a state, local and federal level,” Shapiro said at a press conference afterward. “We want to do everything we can to shorten the lifespan of this virus. It started way earlier than any of us would have hoped, and now our goal is to end it more quickly than others might expect.”

Shapiro sought to assure farmers that the state will help them if their flocks become infected. Pennsylvania has a recovery fund with $60 million for affected farmers. And Shapiro said the legislature has given him wiggle room to divert other funds if that runs out.

One farmer, Mike Martz, said the avian flu recovery fund “restored [his] faith in our state government,” after his flock saw a diagnosis just before Christmas in 2023.

“I remember saying to my father, ‘Dad, I think we’re gonna be on our own for a few days because the government’s not going to work during Christmas.’ Boy, was I wrong.”

The High-Path Avian Influenza Recovery Fund was established in 2022. It’s the only dedicated bird flu recovery program in the country.

While farmers at the round table expressed gratitude for the recovery fund, some said they would like to see the state step up their biosecurity measures.

Scott Sechler, from Bell and Evans farms, said he’s been coming to meetings about avian influenza since the last outbreak of this size, in 1983.

“We’re doing a terrible job at avoiding why we have this problem in the first place,” Sechler said. 

He said he’d like to see the state ensure farmers follow better biosecurity measures, like cleaning all pens and equipment between flocks, and performing blood tests before any time a chicken leaves a farm for any reason.

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State Veterinarian Alex Hamberg agreed biosecurity improvements are necessary, but noted that the many current cases can be traced to wild birds infecting domestic flocks. Lancaster County is also one of the most densely populated poultry counties in the country.

Heather Lewis, a first generation farmer, said raising fowl in Pennsylvania carries unique risks and benefits.

“Have we talked about moving out of Pennsylvania? We have,” she said. “It feels risky. But is there another state we would move to that feels so supportive? There is not.”

Shapiro said that the state is working closely with the federal government, and praised U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins.

According to the governor’s office, dozens of USDA employees are on the ground in the state, and the federal agency has also agreed to relax requirements for veterinarians that can be deployed to farms.

Shapiro also gave an update on vaccine efforts being led by the federal government, noting it will likely be months before it can be deployed, if at all.

“This will take months, and months ,and months to deploy, if at all, and it will likely be in the form of a pilot [program],” Shapiro said. “They’re obviously dealing with some dynamics at the federal level, both the trade dynamics that are going to be incredibly important here, and some other dynamics within their administration.”

Despite the severity of the outbreak, Hamberg said it’s unlikely to cause the kind of spikes in egg prices that were seen in 2024.

That’s because, as it stands, the avian flu outbreak is largely localized. The outbreak years ago simultaneously affected farms in the northeast, midwest and west coast. As it stands, Pennsylvania has had more than half of the nation’s documented bird flu cases.

Early last week, the Maryland Department of Agriculture announced that preliminary results of testing on a broiler chicken farm in Wicomico County detected bird flu, affecting 77,600 birds. It’s the second Maryland farm hit by bird flu this calendar year, after the disease was confirmed on a Caroline County-based commercial farm in January, affecting 37,000 chickens.

Other attendees to the panel included Sens. Scott Martin (R-Lancaster), James Malone (D-Lancaster) and Judith Schwank (D-Berks), and Reps. Dan Moul (R-Adams) and Brett Miller (R-Lancaster) and Eddie Day Pashinski (D-Luzerne).

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Pennsylvania Capital-Star is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Tim Lambert for questions: info@penncapital-star.com.