The year’s first case of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in commercial poultry for the Canadian province of Saskatchewan was confirmed on September 21.
According to information from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), the latest case was confirmed in the Rural Municipality of Maple Creek. CFIA has not yet disclosed the type of commercial flock involved or how many birds were affected.
It had been more than 10 months since the last confirmed outbreak of HPAI occurred in Saskatchewan, when the virus struck in the Rural Municipality of Humboldt on November 14, 2022.
There were 16 confirmed cases of HPAI in Saskatchewan in 2022.
Things had been pretty quiet on the HPAI front in Canada in recent months. There had not been any new positive HPAI detections in the country since May, until it reappeared in a commercial poultry flock in Warner County, Alberta, earlier this month. It was Alberta’s first case since November 15, 2022.
Alberta also had a positive detection of HPAI in a non-commercial poultry flock in Red Deer County on September 22, CFIA reported.
Provinces to have confirmed detections of HPAI in commercial flocks so far in 2023 are Saskatchewan, Alberta, Quebec, British Columbia and Ontario. Those five provinces, as well as Manitoba and Nova Scotia, all had confirmed HPAI cases in commercial poultry in 2022.
Since HPAI first appeared at an exhibition farm in Newfoundland and Labrador in December 2021, every Canadian province and territory has had some sort of confirmed HPAI case, whether it be in commercial poultry, backyard poultry or wild birds.
The United States has not had any cases of HPAI in commercial poultry since April 19.
To learn more about HPAI cases in commercial poultry flocks in the United States, Canada and Mexico, see an interactive map on WATTPoultry.com.
