The United States and Canada each had the presence of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) confirmed in two more commercial poultry flocks on October 30.
Both cases in the United States were reported in California, reported the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), while the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) reported that both of its new instances were in British Columbia.
Avian influenza in California
Both California flocks were commercial broiler operations, with one of them in Fresno County and the other in Kings County. One day earlier, the presence of HPAI was confirmed in two other Kings County broiler flocks. APHIS has not yet released how many chickens were in any of those four affected flocks.
California has now had seven commercial poultry flocks affected by H5N1 HPAI this fall, with the other instances being two commercial broiler flocks in Tulare County and a commercial meat turkey flock in Merced County. California has also had 158 commercial dairy herds affected by H5N1 over the past 30 days, APHIS reported.
Avian influenza in British Columbia
Both of British Columbia’s most recently affected flocks are in Chilliwack. That municipality has been the site for five of the provinces eight commercial flocks to be struck by HPAI in October. The other three were in Abbotsford.
CFIA has not released information concerning the size of any of the flocks, or what type of birds were involved. However, the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) stated that one of the flocks in Chilliwack was a layer flock and another there was a broiler flock. WOAH also identified one of the Abbotsford flocks as a commercial turkey flock.
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.