The presence of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) has been confirmed at seven additional commercial turkey operations, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).
Updated information on the APHIS website on the afternoon of March 31 showed that the new cases were spread out among three states – Minnesota, South Dakota and Iowa – and resulted in the loss of 294,328 turkeys.
Avian influenza in South Dakota
Of the seven new cases, four are in South Dakota, which so far in 2022 has had more properties affected by HPAI than any other state.
These new cases occurred in Brule, Spink, Bon Homme and Edmunds counties. The Brule County case affected the most birds at 55,219, while the Bon Homme County case affected 51,000. There were 46,300 turkeys affected in Spink County, while the Edmunds County case involved 22,309 turkeys.
Of those counties, only Edmunds County had experienced an earlier case. On March 23, HPAI was confirmed at another commercial turkey farm in the county, involving 31,730 birds.
Bon Homme County had one previous HPAI detection, but that was in a backyard flock, which in accordance with World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) standards would not have led to any trade barriers.
Other South Dakota counties with confirmed HPAI cases include Jarauld, Kingsbury, Beadle, Handson, Charles Mix and Hutchinson.
One of South Dakota’s cases involved a layer operation and another affected what APHIS described as a commercial flock of mixed poultry, while all other commercial cases in the state were confirmed in turkey operations.
Avian influenza in Minnesota
The most recently reported cases of HPAI in Minnesota involved one commercial turkey operation in Kandiyohi County and the other was in Lac Qui Parle County. The Kandiyohi case involved 40,000 turkeys, while the Lac Qui Parle County case involved 44,000 turkeys.
This is the first confirmed case for each of those counties. The two previous cases of HPAI to be confirmed in Minnesota occurred in Stearns and Meeker counties.
Of those four cases, the Meeker County case involved the most turkeys with a count of 240,000.
Avian influenza in Iowa
One additional case was reported in Iowa, in Buena Vista County. That marks the fourth case in commercial poultry in that county.
The most recent case involved 35,500 turkeys. The three previous cases confirmed in the county included two turkey farms and one layer operation. The Buena Vista County layer case is the United State’s largest HPAI case so far in 2022, with 5,347,511 chickens affected.
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.
