Not even one week after the number of U.S. birds affected by the 2022-2023 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreak surpassed 60 million, a nearly one million table egg laying hen operation in Minnesota has pushed the number past 61 million. Cases in Alabama, South Dakota, Iowa and Arkansas contributed to the large spike, as well.

The egg laying operation of 940,000 hens was located in Wright County, Minnesota. Cases in a commercial broiler breeder operation with 47,900 pullets in Marshall County, Alabama, and a commercial turkey breeder operation with 26,800 hens in McPherson County, South Dakota, were confirmed late last week.

On Friday, Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship announced four more farms with the virus. Three affected sites in Clay County are game bird duck farms, with one of the farms also containing a small backyard mixed species flock. Another site in Hamilton County is a flock of commercial breeding chickens.

A case in Madison County, Arkansas, reported in a commercial breeder broiler breeder pullet operation of 31,600 birds, is the first for the state this fall.

Commercial and backyard flock owners should prevent contact between their birds and wild birds. Sick birds or unusual deaths among birds should be immediately reported to state or federal officials.

Biosecurity resources, as well as additional information, is available from APHIS here.