For backyard and farm flocks
Call your state veterinarian's office or USDA. The call is free, and a quick report is the best protection your flock and your neighbors' flocks have against bird flu.
USDA sick bird line · from any state
1-866-536-7593
The signs of avian influenza USDA asks owners to watch for. One bird with one sign isn't always bird flu, but sudden deaths always deserve a call.
From USDA APHIS, Avian Influenza.
Cinnamon Cochin hen, 1868
Have these ready: what kind of birds you keep and how many, how many are sick or dead and since when, and anything new, like added birds, a trip to a poultry swap, or wild ducks on your pond.
Don't sell, trade or give away birds, eggs, manure, litter or equipment until you hear back.
Keep birds in the coop or a covered run, away from wild birds, and keep their feed and water covered.
The office may want one to test. Don't take a bird to a vet clinic or lab without calling first. Unless you're told otherwise, wear gloves, double-bag the bird and keep it somewhere cool where pets and wildlife can't get to it.
CDC advises gloves, an N95 mask and eye protection around sick birds. Change clothes and wash before you go back inside. For 10 days, watch for fever, cough or red, sore eyes, and if they show up, call a doctor and mention the birds.
Keep people off the property, and don't visit anyone else's birds.
Sources: USDA Defend the Flock, CDC, backyard flock owners.
A veterinarian from the state or USDA will follow up. If it sounds like a disease they need to rule out, someone will come out and swab a few birds, or collect a dead one, and send the samples to a lab.
If highly pathogenic avian influenza is confirmed, the flock is depopulated and the property is quarantined while it's cleaned and disinfected.
Each state's animal health office takes reports of sick and dead poultry for that state. Pick yours.
Not always. One death with a clear cause, like a predator or a bird that was egg-bound, is part of keeping poultry. Call when several birds die within a day or two, when a bird dies suddenly with no warning, or when deaths come with any of the signs on this page.
Highly pathogenic avian influenza is a notifiable disease under federal rules, so suspected cases have to reach state or federal animal health officials. Many states also have their own reporting laws for poultry owners. Calling is how you meet that, and it is how your neighbors find out before it reaches their birds.
Only if testing confirms highly pathogenic avian influenza. Then the flock is depopulated and the property is put under quarantine so the virus can't spread. USDA pays indemnity for birds and eggs that have to be destroyed. It does not pay for birds that had already died of the disease, which is one more reason to call early.
Don't eat, sell or give away eggs from a flock you think is sick. Hold them until the office tells you what to do with them.
Cats in particular have caught H5N1 from eating infected birds and raw products. Keep pets away from sick birds, dead birds and the coop until you have an answer.
That goes to your state wildlife agency or USDA Wildlife Services instead. Who to call for wild birds.
National numbers last checked October 15, 2026.