{"id":1603,"date":"2022-05-16T10:32:14","date_gmt":"2022-05-16T14:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/?p=1603"},"modified":"2022-05-16T10:54:51","modified_gmt":"2022-05-16T14:54:51","slug":"hpai-situational-report-may-16-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/veterinarylab\/2022\/05\/16\/hpai-situational-report-may-16-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Situational Report, May 16, 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) in the United States over?<\/h3>\n

No.<\/strong> HPAI continues to impact US domestic and wild birds, and we should be very grateful we\u2019ve not recently had domestic flock cases in Maine, but very cautious to keep it from happening again.<\/p>\n

Between this February and last week, approximately 37.7 million poultry were lost due to HPAI per the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). In commercial flocks, there were losses of almost 30 million US layers and pullets, over 5 million US domestic turkeys (including approximately 150,000 breeders), well over 2 million US broilers (including almost 100,000 broiler breeders), and about 150,000 US domestic ducks (per Eric Gingerich, Association for Veterinarians in Egg Production). While these losses were seen from Maine to Washington state, the fact that last week saw 3 new commercial farms affected in Pennsylvania suggests that our region is definitely not<\/strong> \u201cout of the woods\u201d.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t have a good way of knowing how much HPAI is circulating in the wildlife population, but we can use good common sense and biosecurity to reduce any impact on our domestic flocks, and any public health impacts.\u00a0 Avian flu may mutate to become pathogenic to people, though so far only one human case has been reported in the US, in a poultry worker:<\/p>\n