Five more cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) were confirmed in British Columbia on November 22, reported the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).
Elsewhere in North America, Ontario and South Dakota have each had one new confirmed HPAI case.
Avian flu cases mount in British Columbia
All five of these new British Columbia cases involved commercial poultry flocks, with two of those in Abbotsford, two in Chilliwack, and one in the Kent district. More specific information concerning these recently affected flocks has not yet been released.
British Columbia has seen a major surge in HPAI cases during the past week, with 13 new detections in commercial poultry. Since November 16, Abbotsford has had nine new cases, Chilliwack has had three cases and Kent has had one.
Over the course of that week, British Columbia has gone from the province with the sixth most HPAI cases to the province with the third most cases. With 20 total cases of HPAI in commercial flocks in 2022, only Alberta and Ontario have had more cases, with 38 and 26 cases, respectively.
Other provinces to have confirmed cases of HPAI in 2022 are Manitoba (17), Quebec (16), Saskatchewan (16) and Nova Scotia (2).
New avian influenza case in Ontario
One of those 26 cases in Ontario was just confirmed on November 21, in a commercial poultry flock in Adelaide Metcalf. This marks the second HPAI case in the municipality, with the earlier one being confirmed three days earlier.
Another South Dakota flock affected by avian flu
On the same day five new HPAI cases were confirmed in British Columbia, one more case was confirmed in South Dakota, bringing the state’s number of cases to 46.
The most recent case was confirmed in a commercial meat turkey flock in Beadle County, with 29,200 turkeys affected. This is Beadle County’s sixth HPAI case of 2022, with all six involving turkey operations, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).
This case came just one day after another case was confirmed in a commercial turkey flock in Edmunds County.
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.
