BY ROY GRABER
ON JULY 28, 2022
Avian influenza found in third Utah turkey flock
Latest case in Sanpete County involved 12,700 commercial turkeys
The presence of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) has been confirmed in another commercial turkey flock in Utah.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) reported that on July 26, HPAI was confirmed in a flock of 12,700 turkeys in Sanpete County, Utah, making it the third HPAI case in that county.
The two previous cases in Sanpete County were confirmed on July 14 and July 19 – both of which were larger flocks than the most recently affected one.
Between the three flocks, avian influenza has affected 38,800 commercial turkeys in Sanpete County.
The latest case marks the fourth case of HPAI in Utah in 2022. The first case was confirmed on April 22 in a commercial table egg layer flock in Cache County. There were more than 1.5 million layers in that flock.
Backyard flocks in the Utah Counties of Utah, Salt Lake and Cache have also been affected by HPAI, as has a petting zoo/exhibition farm inn Salt Lake County. With the exception of the three Sanpete County cases, the control areas related to all other HPAI cases in Utah have been released, according to APHIS.
Prior to the three Sanpete County cases, the last case of HPAI in the United States was confirmed on June 9 in a flock of 205,000 commercial layer pullets in Weld County, Colorado.
So far in 2022, HPAI has been confirmed in commercial poultry in the states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky, Indiana, Colorado, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Utah. The virus has also been found in commercial game bird operations in Texas, New York and South Dakota.
To learn more about HPAI cases in North American commercial poultry flocks, see an interactive map on WATTPoultry.com.
Read our ongoing coverage of the global avian influenza outbreak.