HPAI

In less than three weeks, more than 10 million egg-laying hens have died in outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) across the country. The casualties included 13 percent  — one in eight — of laying hens in Iowa, the No. 1 egg-producing state, said the Agriculture Department on Monday.

“High path” avian influenza was confirmed in a backyard flock in Nebraska, the 16th state with the viral disease in a domestic flock this year, said the Agriculture Department on Wednesday. Meanwhile, officials in Indiana and Kentucky rolled back quarantine areas in their states after a string of disease-free days.

Just one day after officials reported bird flu on a turkey farm in Missouri’s Jasper County, they confirmed another outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza on a poultry farm in neighboring Lawrence County. The discovery increased the toll of “high path” bird flu among U.S. domestic flocks since Feb. 8 to 3.04 million birds, almost all of them chickens or turkeys.

"High path" bird flu was identified in backyard flocks in central Illinois and eastern Kansas, said a USDA agency on Saturday. The outbreak in Franklin County, Kansas, about 55 miles southwest of Kansas City, was the farthest west that highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) has been confirmed in a domestic flock this year.

Some 3 million birds, almost all of them chickens and turkeys, have died in outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza since the first confirmation of the disease in domestic flocks on Feb. 8, said a USDA agency on Wednesday. The latest outbreaks involved 442,000 chickens and turkeys on farms in Delaware, Maryland, and Missouri.

With new outbreaks in Iowa and Missouri, nearly 2.8 million birds—almost entirely chickens and turkeys—have died in one month due to highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), the Agriculture Department said on Monday. The viral disease has been identified in 23 poultry farms and backyard flocks in a dozen states since Feb. 8.

Avian influenza was identified at a sixth turkey farm in southern Indiana, and state officials said on Tuesday the 16,500 birds on the farm would be killed while they wait for confirmation of the viral disease. Meanwhile, the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said 1.6 million turkeys, chickens and other fowl have died as part of this year's outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI).

On Thursday, the Agriculture Department confirmed an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in a non-commercial backyard flock in southwestern Michigan, the seventh state with the viral disease in a domestic flock in a little over two weeks.

State and federal officials have killed tens of thousands of broiler chickens and turkeys on poultry farms in Indiana and Kentucky, and backyard flocks in three other states, while fighting outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). They are the first cases of the viral disease, which can quickly wipe out flocks, among domestic flocks in two years.

Colorado is the first state in the nation to require dairy farmers to submit a weekly sample of milk to be tested for the H5N1 avian flu virus — “the best next step” to protect its poultry and dairy industries from bird flu, said Maggie Baldwin, the state veterinarian.