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<\/a><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tI report on how decisions made in Pennsylvania\u2019s state Capitol ripple across communities throughout the commonwealth. My coverage centers on the General Assembly, the Governor\u2019s Office and the broader landscape of Pennsylvania politics.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m especially interested in the development and regulation of artificial intelligence, how public officials manage taxpayer dollars and policy ideas aimed at addressing everyday \u2014 and sometimes overlooked \u2014 challenges.<\/p>\n
I grew up just north of Pittsburgh in Beaver County, Pa., and graduated from Bucknell University in 2023. My first reporting gig was at LNP | LancasterOnline as a politics reporter, before I started at WITF in the summer of 2025.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
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\u00a0Governor’s Office<\/p>\n
Gov. Josh Shapiro hosted a meeting with state officials and poultry farmers at the Rapid Response Center in Lancaster County on Feb. 24, 2026, to discuss the ongoing outbreak of bird flu. <\/p>\n
Silver Valley Farm owner Jim Shirk, a ninth-generation poultry farmer from Lancaster County, has faced hardship due to avian influenza harming his flocks over the past few decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But Shirk told Gov. Josh Shapiro at a gathering of state officials and agriculture leaders on Tuesday that what he\u2019s seeing in this year\u2019s outbreak is unprecedented.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou work your lifetime growing birds, trying to keep birds healthy,\u201d Shirk said. \u201cAnd all of a sudden, they\u2019re gone \u2014 in truly a blink of an eye.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pennsylvania is in the midst of its worst outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in decades, dealing a major blow to the commonwealth\u2019s $7.1 billion poultry industry.<\/p>\n
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, about 7.48 million birds have been affected in Pennsylvania as of Feb. 20. The vast majority of confirmed cases are in Lancaster County.<\/p>\n
That statewide number puts Pennsylvania at the highest rate of impacted birds, accounting for more than half of confirmed cases nationwide.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There is no treatment for avian influenza. According to the USDA<\/a>, exposed birds should be euthanized to prevent other flocks from potential infection.<\/p>\n Shapiro\u2019s office announced last week<\/a> that 42 USDA employees would be coming to Pennsylvania to reinforce the more than 50 state employees working to combat the virus\u2019 spread.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a whole government approach,\u201d Shapiro told the gathering of officials.\u00a0<\/p>\n Shapiro said he had been working in close coordination with federal agencies, including USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins, on efforts to combat the virus. He specified a few requests that he had for Rollins, including increased access to the department\u2019s staff and veterinarians.\u00a0<\/p>\n But he also asked Rollins about the update on a bird flu vaccine.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not a tomorrow thing,\u201d Shapiro said, based on his conversation with Rollins. \u201cThis is not gonna get us through the next few weeks here. The secretary was clear about that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n After the meeting, Shapiro would not say whether he wanted a pilot program for any potential vaccine to be organized in Pennsylvania.\u00a0<\/p>\n Shapiro told the gathering of farmers \u2014 who are direct competitors in the market \u2014 and the lawmakers from both political parties, that poultry producers should feel confident that officials are doing all they can to combat the outbreak.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the kind of moment that tests us,\u201d Shapiro said. \u201cWe\u2019re a community that\u2019s been tested before \u2026 and we are going to work our way through this.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018Unprecedented\u2019 moment<\/p>\n The word \u201cunprecedented\u201d was used by many speakers at the avian flu roundtable \u2014 whether it was to describe how quickly the number of cases has risen in Pennsylvania or to talk about the cross-governmental collaboration trying to get the spread under control.<\/p>\n Chris Herr is the executive vice president of the agriculture advocacy group PennAg, which helped organize the roundtable and assists in running the Rapid Response Center. He said farmers from all over the state have been working together like never before to combat the spread of avian influenza.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe last three weeks have been some of the most difficult in my almost 40-year career,\u201d Herr said.\u00a0<\/p>\n But he noted that Pennsylvania has done more to support its poultry industry than any other state facing bird flu outbreaks.\u00a0<\/p>\n Pennsylvania Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding shared a similar sentiment.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThese are not easy conversations to have at any level,\u201d Redding said. \u201cThey can test your patience, for sure, and your diplomacy, but \u2026 we have seen the very, very best of people.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Fighting bird flu\u00a0<\/p>\n
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