Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) resurfaced this week in Illinois, where it had not been detected since spring, and continued to spread among commercial turkey operations in South Dakota.
Three new outbreaks in South Dakota – in Charles Mix, Hamlin and Hanson counties – infected a total of 197,200 turkeys, according to USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. The state’s turkey operations have been especially hard hit this fall. In November alone, more than 467,000 turkeys were infected with the virus in South Dakota.
Todd Tedrow, director of animal health for the South Dakota Animal Industry Board, told Keloland Media that how HPAI is managing to infect domestic flocks despite heightened biosecurity efforts is the “million dollar question.”
In Minnesota, the latest outbreak affecting a commercial turkey operation resulted in the depopulation of 44,500 birds in Todd County, while in Maryland, tests confirmed a case on a poultry farm in Washington County, infecting 24,600 table egg breeders. The virus was last seen in Maryland in September.
In Illinois’ Grundy County, 8,000 game birds were infected at a commercial operation.
At 52.7 million, the number of birds that have died in this year’s HPAI outbreak in the United States has surpassed the record set in the 2015 outbreak.
