A previously announced case of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in a commercial poultry operation in Ionia County, Michigan, involved nearly 2 million chickens, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) reported.
According to APHIS, the presence of HPIA was confirmed in a commercial table egg layer flock in that county on April 3, with that flock including 1,928,500 birds.
The case was earlier announced by the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD), but it did not reveal the flock numbers, and only hinted at the fact that it was a layer operation.
The Ionia County poultry case was announced less than a week after MDARD revealed that cattle in a dairy herd in Montcalm County, Michigan, had tested positive for HPAI. Ionia County is directly south of Montcalm County.
The Ionia County poultry case was announced less than a week after MDARD revealed that cattle in a dairy herd in Montcalm County, Michigan, had tested positive for HPAI. Ionia County is directly south of Montcalm County.
This is the fourth commercial poultry flock in Michigan to have the presence of HPAI confirmed during the 2022-24 HPAI outbreak. The three previous cases all involved commercial turkey operations. Two of those were confirmed in December 2023, and collectively affected about 79,400 birds. The other case was confirmed in May 2022 and involved about 35,100 turkeys.
After only one commercial poultry flock in the United States was infected with HPAI in March, APHIS has already confirmed two cases of HPAI in April. Both of those cases have involved commercial layer operations that were similar in size.
One day before the Michigan case was confirmed, the presence of HPAI in a commercial egg operation in Parmer County, Texas, was confirmed. According to APHIS, there were 1,894,100 birds in that flock.
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.
