North Carolina became the latest state to have a commercial poultry flock affected by highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in 2024 after going through all of 2023 without such a case.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) reported that on February 9, the presence of HPAI was confirmed in a commercial meat turkey flock in Lenoir County, North Carolina. The affected flock contained 32,500 birds.
This is the first case of HPAI in commercial poultry in North Carolina since April 12, 2022. In 2022, the state had nine commercial poultry flocks affected by HPAI, leading to the loss of 481,400 birds. The only cases of HPAI reported in North Carolina in 2023 were backyard flocks, which according to World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) standards, should not impact international poultry trade.
With this latest HPAI detection, North Carolina becomes the eighth state to have the virus confirmed in commercial poultry or commercial gamebirds. The other states are Wisconsin, Colorado, Nebraska, Indiana, South Dakota, Kansas and California. It also becomes the fourth state to have a confirmed HPAI case in a commercial operation after having had none in 2023. The other three are Colorado, Nebraska and Indiana.
Another poultry flock in Quebec hit by avian flu
Elsewhere in North America, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) reported that the presence of HPAI was confirmed in a commercial poultry flock in Drummond Regional County Municipality, Quebec. CFIA has not disclosed the type of flock or how many birds were involved.
This is Quebec’s second commercial poultry operation to have been struck by HPAI in 2024. The previous case was confirmed in Papineau Regional County Municipality on January 3.
The only other Canadian province to have HPAI appear in a commercial poultry farm in 2024 is Ontario, with that case being confirmed on Amherstburg on January 31. WOAH reported that was a commercial turkey operation, but the number of birds lost has not yet been disclosed.
View our continuing coverage of the global avian influenza situation.
To learn more about HPAI cases in commercial poultry flocks in the United States, Mexico and Canada, see an interactive map on WATTPoultry.com.
