Nebraska now has its fifth confirmed case of bird flu in a domestic flock.
The Nebraska Department of Agriculture said the highly contagious disease was found in a small mixed backyard flock in Scotts Bluff County consisting of chickens and waterfowl.
That's the first case of bird flu in western Nebraska. All previous cases in both domestic flocks and wild birds have been in eastern Nebraska. That includes cases that resulted in 970,000 broiler chickens having to be killed at two poultry farms in Butler County that raise birds for the Costco processing plant in Fremont.
The Agriculture Department said the Scotts Bluff County flock has already been destroyed and a 6.2-mile surveillance zone has been set up around the property.
This year's outbreak, which is the largest since 2015, has claimed nearly 23 million birds. Nebraska last month canceled all poultry events in the state in an effort to limit the spread of the disease.