The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has reported a new case of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in South Dakota, while offering more details on an earlier announced HPAI case in North Dakota.
South Dakota avian influenza case
The presence of HPAI was confirmed in a commercial meat turkey flock in Beadle County, South Dakota, on April 19, according to APHIS. There were 75,800 turkeys in that flock.
This marks the ninth case of HPAI in commercial poultry Beadle County during the 2022-23 outbreak, but the first of 2023. Statewide, South Dakota had 61 cases of HPAI in 2022, but the only other commercial operation to be affected so far this year was an upland gamebird farm in Spink County, with that case being confirmed in March.
Only Minnesota has had more cases of HPAI during the 2022-23 outbreak, with 81 commercial flocks affected. However, the only detection of the virus in Minnesota this year was in a backyard flock, and the last case in a commercial flock in the state was in December.
North Dakota avian influenza case
The North Dakota Department of Agriculture (NDDA) reported on April 18 that HPAI had been confirmed in a commercial turkey flock in Dickey County, but at the time, it did not state how many turkeys were involved. According to a report from APHIS, that flock involved 58,500 birds.
This marks the first case of HPAI in North Dakota in 2023, but there were five confirmed cases in commercial flocks in 2022, all of which involved turkeys.
An estimated 235,600 birds were lost in those cases, with the largest of the affected flocks consisting of 69,100 turkeys. One of the 2022 cases was in Dickey County. Two were in Lamoure County, while Ransom and Richland Counties also each had one case.
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.
