The presence of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) was confirmed in seven commercial poultry flocks in North America’s Pacific Flyway on December 4.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) reported four new flock infections in California, while the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) reported three new flock infections in British Columbia.
HPAI in California
Of the four newly confirmed instances of HPAI in California, three of the flocks were in Stanislaus County. APHIS identified two of those flocks as commercial meat turkey flocks and the other as a commercial layer flock. However, APHIS has not yet disclosed the size of the three Stanislaus County flocks.
The fourth California flock was in Sacramento County. It involved 61,200 commercial meat turkeys.
These latest occurrences bring the number of flocks in California to be affected by HPAI in 2022 to 26. Of those, four were in Stanislaus County and two were in Sacramento County.
The H5N1 virus that has been prevalent in these California poultry flocks has also been spreading in commercial dairy cattle in the state as well. According to APHIS, 269 cases of H5N1 have been confirmed in California dairies during the past 30 days.
HPAI in British Columbia
According to CFIA, two of the flock infections confirmed on December 4 were in Abbotsford, British Columbia, and one was in the Fraser Valley Regional District.
CFIA has not disclosed what type of birds were in these flocks, nor has it shared how many birds were in these flocks.
With these latest HPAI discoveries, 60 commercial poultry flocks in British Columbia have been affected by the virus in 2024. Of those, 46 have been in Abbotsford, which has had 102 commercial flocks struck by the virus during the 2022-24 HPAI outbreak.
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.
