Montana's First Bird Flu Case of 2026 Traced to Chicken With No Travel History
Montana’s first confirmed case of avian influenza in 2026 has been identified in a backyard chicken flock in Carbon County, according to the state Department of Livestock, raising alarm among poultry owners and mild confusion among the general public, many of whom did not realize Carbon County had backyard chickens.
The affected flock, belonging to a rural homestead south of Red Lodge, consisted of 14 hens and one rooster described by his owner as “not particularly social even before all this.”