The presence of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) was confirmed in two commercial poultry farms in the Pacific Flyway in recent days.
One of the cases was in the U.S. state of California, while the other was in the Canadian province of British Columbia.
Avian influenza in California
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) reported that HPAI was confirmed in a commercial table egg laying flock in Merced County, California, on December 26.
There were 709,000 hens in the flock.
This flock infection was confirmed six days after two other commercial flocks in Merced County had confirmed detections of HPAI. One of those involved 243,300 commercial laying hens, while the other involved 73,700 commercial meat turkeys.
To date, California has had 19 commercial flocks affected by HPAI in 2023, with seven of those in Merced County. In 2022, the state had 15 commercial flocks affected.
Avian influenza in British Columbia
After a 16-day break in new HPAI cases in commercial poultry flocks in Canada, another commercial operation has been detected.
According to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), the presence of the virus was confirmed in a commercial poultry flock in Chilliwack, British Columbia, on December 25. Before that, the last commercial flock to be affected by HPAI was December 16, with that case being detected in Abbotsford, British Columbia.
British Columbia has now had 56 commercial flocks infected with HPAI in 2023. In 2022, the province had 72.
This is the first case in a commercial flock to be confirmed after the two-year anniversary of when HPAI first arrived in Canada.
On December 20, 2021, the CFIA confirmed the presence of HPAI at an exhibition farm in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. Since that time, the virus has been confirmed in every Canadian province and territory. However, HPAI infections in Canadian commercial poultry flocks have been limited to the provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Quebec, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Nova Scotia.
To learn more about HPAI cases in commercial poultry flocks in the United States, Mexico and Canada, see an interactive map on WATTPoultry.com.
View our continuing coverage of the global avian influenza situation.
