The presence of highly pathogenic avian influenza has been confirmed on two more farms in the Canadian province of Alberta.
One of the new cases involved a commercial flock in Strathcona County, while the other involved a non-commercial flock in the Municipal District of Smoky River.
Both cases were confirmed on September 26, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). Information concerning flock size, or what type of commercial flock was affected has not yet been released.
These mark the third and fourth premises affected by HPAI in Alberta in September, and the fifth in Canada for the month. The previous instances involved commercial flocks in Warner County, Alberta, and Maple Creek, Saskatchewan, and a non-commercial flock in Red Deer County, Alberta.
Prior to these five HPAI infections in September, Canada had not had any cases of HPAI in commercial poultry since May 6.
Before these most recent HPAI outbreaks in Alberta, the province had not had any confirmed cases since November 15, 2022. The province had 38 commercial poultry flocks affected in 2022. Only one of those was in Strathcona County, with the two infections occurring more than a year apart. The 2022 Strathcona County outbreak was confirmed on September 4.
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.
