PETALUMA, Calif. - A Sonoma County duck farm is being forced to destroy tens of thousands of ducks that have been or will be infected by a highly-contagious bird flu. The same farm was hit by the disease two years ago when infected migratory wild birds made contact with domesticated farm animals.

As winter progresses, we're likely to see more of these bird flu infections as we have for many years. In California, this year so far, there have been two affected commercial flocks affecting 288,000 birds. The latest infection in rural Sonoma County west of Petaluma, the Reichardt Duck Farm is euthanizing 57,000 birds.

Microbiology Professor Axel Lehere, PhD of the University of Hawaii's Tropical Medicine Department, says such mass euthanizations act like fire breaks to stop a wildfire-lik

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