The Commonwealth Beat with Laura LeBeau - Episode 70 - 02/16/25

The Commonwealth Beat with Laura LeBeau is a statewide Public Affairs program airing on all of the Seven Mountains Media Pennsylvania radio stations.  Avian influenza has been top of mind across Pennsylvania and the nation, and continues to wreak havoc on the nation's poultry producers.  It's being felt, most prominently as the supply of eggs dwindles, and the price of them skyrockets.  Right now, avian influenza has been detected in all 50 states, forcing poultry and egg producers to destroy millions of birds in order to eradicate the highly contagious disease from their farms.  Within the past month, Pennsylvania has seen small outbreaks bird flu in five of its 67 counties, impacting both large and small commercial poultry flocks, plus a group of migratory geese found dead near a pond on the campus of Gettysburg College in Adams County.  So how are state officials dealing with bird flu?  PA Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding will discuss, in an exclusive interview for The Commonwealth Beat.Then we'll turn our attention to human influenza, which is being seen at high levels across the commonwealth in both pediatric and adult patients.  Doctors Emily Link and Jessica Ericson, physicians at the Penn State Health Children's Hospital held a media briefing about the flu, and discuss what Pennsylvanians need to know, if the flu rears its ugly head in your household.