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WASHINGTON, March 16 (Xinhua) -- The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Thursday reported the country's second case of highly pathogenic H7N9 avian influenza at a commercial chicken breeder flock in Lincoln County, Tennessee.
The flock of 55,000 chickens is located within three kilometers of the country's first highly pathogenic case in more than one year, which was reported at another commercial poultry flock earlier this month.
The USDA said that this H7N9 strain is of North American wild bird lineage and is the same strain of avian influenza that affected the first Tennessee case.
"Wild birds can carry this strain of avian influenza," Tennessee State Veterinarian Charles Hatcher said in a statement. "Given the close proximity of the two premises, this is not unexpected."
The affected flock has been quarantined and the birds will be culled to prevent the spread of the disease, the USDA said.
Prior to the two highly pathogenic cases, the most recent U.S. detection was in January of 2016 in a commercial turkey flock in Indiana.
