In Defiance County

An outbreak of bird flu that has led to the deaths of 43 million chickens and turkeys this year across the U.S. has been found at a giant egg-laying operation in Ohio, state and federal agriculture officials say. The case confirmed over the weekend in Defiance County has affected roughly 3 million chickens, that’s according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The egg-laying farm has started euthanizing all of its flock, officials confirm. The highly pathogenic disease has returned to the Midwest earlier than authorities expected after a lull of several months with cases in Indiana, Minnesota, North Dakota and Wisconsin within the past week. There also have been several detections in western states over the summer.