Federal officials reported 11 new cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in commercial turkey and layer chicken flocks located in six South Dakota counties over the past month.
Most recently, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) confirmed HPAI in the South Dakota counties of Edmunds, Kingsbury and Beadle on March 23.
The cases in Edmunds and Beadle affected 31,730 and 50,000 turkeys, respectively, while the case in Kingsbury was reported to impact 124,000 commercial layer chickens.
The case in Kingsbury County is the first confirmed commercial layer chicken flock in South Dakota. All other confirmed HPAI cases in the state impacted commercial turkeys and one commercial mixed flock that the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) revealed included turkeys.
Previously, APHIS confirmed HPAI cases in the South Dakota counties of Beadle, Hanson, Charles Mix, Hutchinson and Kingsbury. Four of these counties – Beadle, Hanson, Charles Mix and Kingsbury – now report two cases of HPAI. The first HPAI case to be confirmed in the state was on March 5 in Charles Mix County.
In total, the HPAI case count in South Dakota affects more than 500,000 commercial poultry.
The South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks (GFP) “is working with the South Dakota Animal Industry Board (AIB), the United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA-APHIS), and other management agencies to monitor and respond additional outbreaks of avian influenza,” according to a statement on the GFP website.
In addition to South Dakota, HPAI has also been confirmed in commercial poultry flocks in Nebraska, Maryland, Delaware, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Wisconsin and Iowa. It has also appeared in a commercial flock in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia.
To learn more about HPAI cases in North American commercial poultry flocks, see an interactive map on WATTPoultry.com.
Read our ongoing coverage of the global avian influenza outbreak.
