Colorado quietly flipped into disaster mode Thursday night, after a suspected bird flu outbreak at a massive Weld County egg operation pushed Lt. Gov. Dianne Primavera, temporarily acting as governor while Jared Polis was in Washington, D.C., to issue a verbal disaster declaration. The move puts the state’s emergency machinery on standby while state and federal teams work to confirm the virus and keep it from ripping through more poultry flocks.
According to the Colorado Governor’s Office, the declaration activates the State Emergency Operations Plan and authorizes the Office of Emergency Management to mobilize personnel and supplies, use emergency purchasing rules, and tap disaster funds for containment and recovery. The office said the decision was coordinated with Gov. Polis while he was in Washington for Colorado River negotiations.
State agriculture officials told The Colorado Sun that Colorado State University lab tests returned a presumptive positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza at a commercial egg-laying operation in Weld County, and samples are now with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Veterinary Services Laboratory for confirmation. “We’re working with a producer, getting ready for a response, but we will not do anything until we get that (national) confirmation,” Colorado Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Olga Robak told The Sun. CBS News Colorado recorded the announcement from the governor’s office…