Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) has resurfaced in Sanpete County, Utah, one of the counties hardest hit by HPAI in the United States in 2022.
The latest case comes just shy of a year after the last instance of HPAI in the county.
According to information from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), the presence of HPAI was confirmed in commercial turkeys in Sanpete County on October 6. A total of 134,200 turkeys were affected. The APHIS report indicated that two premises were affected in Sanpete County, but further information on that farm has not yet been released.
The return of HPAI to the Utah county follows a widespread outbreak there in 2022. Eighteen commercial turkey flocks in the county were infected with HPAI between July 4 and October 25, 2022. In fact, all but one commercial flock to be affected by HPAI in 2022 were in Sanpete County, with the state’s only other case involving a commercial table egg laying flock in Cache County.
With the latest detection, Utah becomes the second state to have a commercial turkey flock affected by HPAI this fall. Two days earlier, the presence of the virus was confirmed in a flock of 47,300 turkeys in Jerauld County, South Dakota. Prior to that, there had not been any instances of HPAI in U.S. commercial poultry since April 19.
The resurgence of HPAI in the United States follows a similar pattern in Canada. In September, two commercial poultry flocks in the Alberta province were affected by HPAI, as well as one commercial flock in Saskatchewan. Two additional premises in Alberta have had confirmed cases of HPAI so far in October. Prior to these cases, the last time HPAI struck a commercial flock in Canada was on May 6.
To learn more about HPAI cases in commercial poultry flocks in the United States, Mexico and Canada, see an interactive map on WATTPoultry.com.
