Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) was confirmed in two more commercial turkey flocks in South Dakota on October 17.
One of the flocks was in Faulk County and involved 49,700 birds, while the other was in McPherson County and involved 65,000 turkeys, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).
These are the state’s third and fourth commercial turkey flocks to be affected by HPAI in 2023, with the previous two occurring in Jerauld County on October 4 and Beadle County on April 19. No cases of HPAI occurred between the Beadle County and Jerauld County infections, but HPAI was confirmed in another commercial turkey flock in North Dakota on the same day the Beadle County case was confirmed.
A South Dakota commercial upland gamebird flock was also hit by HPAI on March 22, in Spink County.
In total, South Dakota has lost about 237,800 commercial turkeys and 570 commercial gamebirds in 2023.
At the conclusion of 2022, South Dakota had 61 commercial poultry flocks affected by HPAI, ranking second to Minnesota, which had 81 commercial flocks affected. Those incidences of HPAI led to the loss of about 3.97 million birds in the state in 2022.
Prior to October 17, the last commercial flock infection in Faulk County was confirmed on November 23, 2022, while the last commercial flock infection in McPherson County was confirmed on September 24, 2022.
So far in 2023, the following states have had confirmed cases of HPAI in commercial poultry: Minnesota, Utah, South Dakota, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Kansas, Mississippi, California, Iowa, Virginia and Tennessee. However, only South Dakota, Minnesota and Utah have had HPAI infections in commercial flocks since April.
While the three most recent HPAI cases in South Dakota have appeared in different counties, the most recent cases in Utah and Minnesota have occurred in the same county. The presence of HPAI was confirmed in two flocks in Sanpete County, Utah, on October 6, and the presence of the virus was confirmed in two flocks in Meeker County, with one of those occurring on October 11 and the other on October 13.
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.
