#16,617
Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) continues to work its way west across the country, with 12 states now reporting outbreaks in commercial or backyard poultry, and at least 19 states reporting finding it in wild birds.
Yesterday the USDA announced an outbreak in Maryland Poultry (see USDA Confirms Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in a Flock of Commercial Layer Chickens in Maryland) and today they announced the 3rd state west of the Mississippi (South Dakota) to report an outbreak in the past 7 days (joining Missouri & Iowa).
Excepts from today's announcement follow:
USDA Confirms Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in a Commercial Mixed Species Flock in South Dakota
Published: Mar 6, 2022
WASHINGTON, March 6, 2022 – The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has confirmed the presence of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in a commercial mixed species flock in Charles Mix County, South Dakota.
Samples from the flock were tested at the South Dakota State University Animal Disease Research and Diagnostic Laboratory, part of the National Animal Health Laboratory Network, and confirmed at the APHIS National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL) in Ames, Iowa.
APHIS is working closely with state animal health officials in South Dakota on a joint incident response. State officials quarantined the affected premises, and birds on the properties will be depopulated to prevent the spread of the disease. Birds from the flock will not enter the food system.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the recent HPAI detections do not present an immediate public health concern. No human cases of these avian influenza viruses have been detected in the United States. As a reminder, the proper handling and cooking of poultry and eggs to an internal temperature of 165 ˚F kills bacteria and viruses.
As part of existing avian influenza response plans, Federal and State partners are working jointly on additional surveillance and testing in areas around the affected flock. The United States has the strongest AI surveillance program in the world, and USDA is working with its partners to actively look for the disease in commercial poultry operations, live bird markets and in migratory wild bird populations.
Although HPAI H5N1 is now considered to be a zoonotic virus, it is believed to pose a low risk to public health (see CDC Update On `Low Risk' Of Human Infection), and is primarily considered a threat to wild birds and poultry.
The last time HPAI H5 visited North America (2015), hundreds of farms were affected across 15 states and 2 provinces of Canada. More than 50 million birds were lost or destroyed, and the outbreak lasted from December well into June.
The $64 question (to which I have no answer), is whether this new and improved HPAI H5 virus will become endemic in North American birds, as it has in Europe and Asia since 2016.
