Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) was detected in a flock of commercial layer chickens in Sioux County, Iowa.
The case was confirmed May 28 by the Iowa Department of Agriculture & Land Stewardship (IDALS). IDALS did not share the size of flock affected, only that it was in commercial layers. Subsequent published reports state that 4.2 million hens were housed on the farm at the time of the outbreak.
The Sioux County case has not yet been reported by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).
Iowa poultry producers and dairy farmers should bolster biosecurity programs and protocols to protect against HPAI, IDALS recommended. The agency also noted that the threat to humans remains low.
First HPAI case in 2024
The HPAI case is the first in the state for 2024. In 2023, Iowa lost 2,894,200 birds to HPAI, down from 15.9 million in 2022. Two of the flocks lost in 2023 involved more than 1 million birds, with the largest involving 1.6 million.
Prior to the most recent Sioux County case, the last time HPAI was reported in Iowa was November 29, 2023. That case impacted 1.6 million hens, also in Sioux County.
That was the second egg operation in Iowa to be struck by HPAI in 2023, with the other case being confirmed on November 14, 2023. The state has also had four commercial turkey flocks affected by HPAI last year.
To learn more about HPAI cases in commercial poultry flocks in the United States, Mexico and Canada, see an interactive map on WATTPoultry.com.
View our continuing coverage of the global avian influenza situation.
