Source:Chris Scott, MEATINGPLACE, 4/13/15


USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has confirmed the presence of highly pathogenic H5N2 avian influenza (HPAI) in a commercial layer flock in Jefferson County, Wisconsin — the first in that state.

The flock of 200,000 chickens is located within the Mississippi flyway where this strain of avian influenza has previously been identified. CDC considers the risk to people from these HPAI H5 infections in wild birds, backyard flocks and commercial poultry, to be low.  No human infections with the virus have been detected.

Other states
Meanwhile, USDA confirmed that the H5N2 strain of bird flu was found in at a commercial farm in Kandiyohi County in Minnesota and two additional farms in South Dakota with a total of 99,000 turkeys were infected with avian influenza.
State and federal officials are culling birds not killed by the virus in South Dakota, while Minnesota has lost an estimated 900,000 birds in the last few weeks after the outbreak was first reported. USDA officials said more than 1.2 million turkeys at 23 farms in six states – Arkansas, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota and South Dakota – have been lost so far. U.S. farms produced about 235 million turkeys in 2014.

Canada
Officials in Canada expanded a quarantine control zone in Ontario as a precaution against the spread of bird flu, even as the number of birds lost at U.S. farms from highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreaks continues to rise.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) confirmed that 29 poultry farms in Ontario are under quarantine after nine farms were found to have the H5 strain of bird flu, according to CBCNews. A new control zone expanding about six miles around an infected farm in southwest Ontario is aimed at limiting the movement of poultry, poultry products and equipment, the agency announced.

CIFA said the control zone will remain in place – with an allowance for continued poultry trade in non-infected areas – until officials are confident that bird flu is no longer spreading through the province.

Poultry trading with U.S. companies is expected to resume today, CFIA said, although Barbados, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan and Uruguay continue to enforce trade sanctions following the Ontario outbreak.