When a cooperative employee opened the barn at Maple Ridge Farms in western Minnesota early last month, dozens of hens lay listless and pale — a scene that has played out on farms across the state as H5 avian influenza sweeps through commercial and backyard flocks. “We lost nearly half our layers in a week,” said Erin Johnson, who runs a 6,000-bird egg operation in Mower County. “This isn’t just birds; it’s our income, our workers’ paychecks, our neighbors’ food.”

State agriculture officials say the number of confirmed avian influenza detections in Minnesota has climbed sharply in recent weeks, affecting both large commercial operations and smaller backyard flocks. “We’ve responded to dozens of infected premises and depopulated more than a million birds to prevent further spread,” Minnesota Commissioner of Agriculture Thom Petersen said in a statement. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has provided technical support, and federal teams have helped establish temporary quarantine and disposal zones around affected farms.

Public health authorities emphasize that the virus remains primarily an animal health threat. “To date, we have not observed sustained human-to-human transmission,” a Minnesota Department of Health spokesperson said. “The risk to the broader public remains low, but we continue surveillance and urge people who work with birds to follow strict protective measures.” Federal agencies are monitoring for any spillover infections and have deployed testing and personal protective equipment to at-risk sites.

Even with limited human health risk, the public health and social consequences are significant. Farms with infected flocks have faced mandatory depopulation, disinfection requirements and isolation periods that halt production. The financial hit is steeper for small family farms that do not have integrated contracts with large processors and rely on thin margins. “When your birds are gone, the customer contracts disappear, but bills do not,” said Steve Olson, a turkey grower in Kandiyohi County. Olson said reimbursement from federal indemnity programs can be slow and rarely covers losses such as lost future income or the cost of replacing breeding stock.

The crisis has also exposed labor and health equity concerns. Many poultry workers in Minnesota are immigrants or refugees who live in multigenerational households, lack paid sick leave and face language barriers to public health guidance. “Our members are scared to report symptoms or miss work because there is no safety net,” said Amina Hassan, director of a farmworker advocacy group in St. Cloud. Advocates are calling for targeted outreach, paid sick leave for agricultural workers and expedited compensation for impacted employees.

Retail and supply chain effects are rippling through local markets. Grocery stores report tighter supplies and modest price increases for eggs and some poultry products in affected regions, trends that hit low-income families hardest. Food banks in rural counties are mobilizing to fill gaps as community food sources decline.

Policy debates are already reigniting in state and federal capitals. Farmers and public health experts are urging permanent funding for proactive biosecurity grants, faster indemnity payments and stronger worker protections that include healthcare access and sick pay. “We can stop treating this as an emergency only when it explodes,” Commissioner Petersen said. “Long-term investments in prevention will protect public health and the livelihoods of people who feed our communities.”

As officials continue tracing infections and enforcing containment measures, the human toll — economic, psychological and communal — is becoming clear. For farmers like Johnson, recovery will be measured not just in restocked coops but in the resilience of rural systems built on precarious labor and thin margins. “We need help now, and we need policy that keeps this from happening again,” she said.