{"id":29656,"date":"2026-03-19T08:51:57","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T12:51:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/?p=29656"},"modified":"2026-03-19T08:51:57","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T12:51:57","slug":"news-release-caroline-county-control-area-released-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2026\/03\/19\/news-release-caroline-county-control-area-released-3\/","title":{"rendered":"NEWS RELEASE: Caroline County Control Area Released"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;font-size: 14pt\"><strong>Caroline County Control Area Released<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;font-size: 14pt\"><em><strong>HPAI SITUATION UPDATE<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;font-size: 12pt\"><strong>ANNAPOLIS, MD (March 19, 2026)\u00a0<\/strong>-The\u00a0<strong>Maryland Department of Agriculture<\/strong>\u00a0has announced the release of the second control area within Caroline County, MD. The previously infected premise remains under quarantine, but all other farms in the former control area, provided they are not located within another active control area, are no longer subject to movement or placement restrictions and are no longer required to conduct enhanced surveillance testing specific to the control area.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;font-size: 12pt\">Routine HPAI surveillance continues statewide. Farms that placed birds before the release of the control area are still required to complete biosecurity audits if those audits have not already been completed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;font-size: 12pt\">There are active control areas on Maryland\u2019s Eastern Shore in Caroline and Cecil Counties. Therefore, it is important to maintain strong, consistent biosecurity practices.<\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;font-size: 12pt\"><strong>What Does it Take to Release a Control Area?\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;font-size: 12pt\">The following conditions must be met to release a Control Area:<b><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li dir=\"ltr\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;font-size: 12pt\">The infected flock has been depopulated, and the compost piles must be capped.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;font-size: 12pt\">Initial virus elimination must be completed for the infected premises.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;font-size: 12pt\">Required surveillance testing for commercial and backyard flocks must be completed. Routine surveillance will continue throughout the state. Even though these control areas have been released, any farm in a control area that did not complete a biosecurity audit and had chicks placed before the control area was closed will still need to do so.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;font-size: 12pt\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aphis.usda.gov\/livestock-poultry-disease\/avian\/avian-influenza\">Avian influenza<\/a>\u00a0is a highly contagious airborne respiratory virus that spreads quickly among birds through nasal and eye secretions and manure. The virus can be spread from flock to flock, including flocks of wild birds, through contact with infected poultry, equipment, and the clothing and shoes of caretakers. This virus affects poultry, such as chickens, ducks, and turkeys, and some wild bird species, such as ducks, geese, shorebirds, and raptors.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;font-size: 12pt\"><strong>If You Have Sick Poultry Or Experience Increased Mortality\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li dir=\"ltr\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;font-size: 12pt\">Commercial poultry producers should notify the company they grow for when they notice signs of disease.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;font-size: 12pt\">Backyard flock owners who notice any signs of HPAI in their flock should not take dead or sick birds to a lab to be tested or move them off-site. To report any unusual or sudden increases to the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/mda.maryland.gov\/AnimalHealth\/pages\/default.aspx\">MDA Animal Health<\/a>\u00a0Program at 410-841-5810.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;font-size: 12pt\">###<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Caroline County Control Area Released HPAI SITUATION UPDATE ANNAPOLIS, MD (March 19, 2026)\u00a0-The\u00a0Maryland Department of Agriculture\u00a0has announced the release of the second control area within Caroline County, MD. The previously infected premise remains under quarantine, but all other farms in the former control area, provided they are not located within another active control area, are<a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2026\/03\/19\/news-release-caroline-county-control-area-released-3\/\">&nbsp;&nbsp;Read the Rest&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":251,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[911,403,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bird-flu","category-mda-newsroom","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/251"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29656"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29657,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29656\/revisions\/29657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}