A fifth case of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) has been confirmed in Pennsylvania, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced.
The latest case was confirmed on April 26, and involved a commercial layer flock of 307,400 hens.
Like every case of HPAI reported in Pennsylvania this year, the detection was made in Lancaster County.
Of the five cases in the state, four of them involved a commercial layer flock, while the other involved a commercial broiler flock. To date, 3,807,800 birds in Pennsylvania have been affected in this outbreak. All but 50,300 of those birds were layers. The first case of HPAI in Pennsylvania was confirmed on April 15.
"While we're very concerned about the threat this avian influenza outbreak is to Pennsylvania's $7.1 billion poultry industry, food safety and availability is not something to worry about," said Pennsylvania Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding. "We encourage everyone in Pennsylvania to move forward with normal buying, cooking, and eating habits."
Of the latest cases of HPAI in the United States to be announced in APHIS, this was the only case to involve commercial poultry. Three other cases were reported in three other states, but those involved backyard flocks and should not impact international poultry trade in accordance with World Organisation for Animal Heath (OIE) standards.
In addition to Pennsylvania, the following states have had confirmed HPAI cases in commercial poultry: Minnesota, Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky, Indiana, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Delaware, Maryland and Utah. The virus has also been found in commercial game bird operations in Texas, New York and South Dakota.
To learn more about HPAI cases in commercial poultry flocks in the United States and Canada, see an interactive map on WATTPoultry.com.
Read our ongoing coverage of the global avian influenza outbreak.
