The presence of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) was confirmed at two commercial poultry facilities in Iowa on March 28.
According to the Untied States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), one of the affected premises was a commercial layer operation and the other was a commercial turkey operation.
The affected layer operation involved 1,460,030 chickens and is located in Guthrie County, while the turkey operation is located in Hamilton County and involves 28,000 birds. These are the first cases of HPAI in 2022 for both counties.
So far in 2022, there have been seven confirmed cases of HPAI in Iowa. Three of those were in Buena Vista County, while there has also been one case each in Franklin and Taylor counties.
Iowa has had more birds affected by HPAI than any other U.S. state in 2022. To date, 7,723,466 commercial layers, 131,620 commercial turkeys, 250,239 commercial pullets and 53 backyard birds have been lost in the state. In each of these cases, birds on the premises tested positive for an H5N1 variant of the virus.
Meanwhile, South Dakota is the state that has had the most farms affected. That number stands at 16.
In addition to Iowa and South Dakota, HPAI has also been confirmed in commercial poultry in the states of Minnesota, Nebraska, Maryland, Delaware, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri and Wisconsin. In Canada, the virus has been confirmed in commercial poultry in the provinces of Nova Scotia and Ontario, as well as in non-commercial birds in British Columbia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick.
The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) has also reported numerous HPAI cases in the continents of Europe, Africa and Asia.
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.
