A commercial broiler flock in Kent County, Delaware, and a commercial layer flock in Buena Vista County, Iowa, are the United States’ newest confirmed cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI).
Both cases were confirmed on March 17, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).
The affected properties have been quarantined and depopulation procedures are taking place.
Iowa case
The recently affected flock in Buena Vista County included 5.3 million layers. This case involves more birds than any other case so far this year, nearly double that of the previous largest case of almost 2.8 million layers in Jefferson County, Wisconsin.
This marks the second case of HPAI in Buena Vista County and the third case of in commercial poultry in Iowa in 2022. The state’s other two cases involved a commercial flock of 49,816 turkeys in Buena Vista County and a commercial layer flock of 915,925 chickens in Taylor County.
Delaware case
The Kent County case involved a flock of 156,800 broilers, which were infected with a HPAI variant of the H5N1 virus.
While it is the first case of HPAI in Kent County in commercial poultry in 2022, although there were previous cases of the virus in wild birds in the county.
Delaware also had two previous cases in commercial poultry. Those involved a flock of 265,000 pullets in New Castle County, and another flock of 1,146,937 layers, also in New Castle County.
Other cases of HPAI in North America
In addition to Iowa, Delaware and Wisconsin, there have been confirmed cases of HPAI in 2022 in commercial poultry in the U.S. states of Maryland, Indiana, Kentucky and South Dakota, and the Canadian province of Nova Scotia.
To learn more about HPAI cases in North American commercial poultry flocks, see an interactive map on WATTPoultry.com.
Read our ongoing coverage of the global avian influenza outbreak.
