The presence of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) has been confirmed in a commercial laying hen flock in Cache County, Utah.
The positive detection was reported by the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food (UDAF) on October 12.
An estimated 1.8 million hens were involved, a spokesperson for UDAF said.
“Our State Veterinarian’s office was notified of symptomatic birds in Cache County and our team was immediately dispatched to assess the situation,” State Veterinarian Dr. Daniel Christensen stated in a press release. “Proper steps are being taken to prevent further spread of the disease.”
UDAF officials are working closely with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Inspection Service (APHIS) on the incident response. The area in which the birds were located has been quarantined and the infected birds will be depopulated to prevent further spread of the disease.
This marks the first time in more than a year that a commercial poultry flock in Utah has been affected by HPAI. The state had two commercial meat turkey flocks struck by the virus on October 6, 2023, according to APHIS. Both of those cases were in Sanpete County, and they collectively included 141,800 turkeys.
Prior to that, Utah had not had any positive HPAI cases in commercial flocks since October 2022. In 2022, the state had 19 commercial poultry flocks affected by HPAI, involving 2.1 million birds. Of those 19 flocks, one of them was in Cache County – a commercial table egg laying flock including 1,501,200 hens.
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.
