Is it safe to use garden fertilizer made from chicken manure?
Chicken manure produced in the U.S. or Canada is extremely unlikely to be a source of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus because the virus has not been found in poultry in North America. There is a potential risk from products containing bird feces (like fertilizer) that have been imported from a country experiencing a highly pathogenic H5N1 outbreak. As a result, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has banned importation of any birds or bird products from countries that have had outbreaks unless the products have been processed in such a way (for example, by heat sterilization) that there is no longer a risk of acquiring avian flu virus from the product.
