GAINESVILLE, Ga. — As this bird flu outbreak continues nationwide, Indiana and Michigan have been hit very hard. Just this week alone, both states have had multiple detections in multiple counties.
For Indiana in particular, November has been a bad month for duck breeders and egg layers. The state has had a HPAI detection almost every day since Nov. 2, according to data from the Indiana State Board of Animal Health. At the beginning of this week, the state had five detections reported, all in LaGrange County.
Two were at commercial egg layer farms, and the rest were at commercial meat duck farms. Among these farms, the smallest number of birds affected was a little more than 5,000, but the largest number was more than 25,000 birds.
The following day, three more farms were affected, two more in LaGrange and one in Elkhart. The farms in LaGrange were commercial egg layers with more than 18,000 birds affected at both locations. In Elkhart, it was a commercial meat duck farm, and more than 7,000 birds were affected.
In the second half of this week, Indiana had more than 10 detections in LaGrange and Elkhart counties, according to USDA data. Thousands of birds were affected on these commercial meat duck and egg layer farms.
As for Michigan, the state has had three detections this month, with two this week in various counties. On Nov. 10, the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development announced the detection of HPAI in a commercial flock in Allegan County.
This is the second case detected in poultry in this county this year, MDARD noted. More than 35,000 birds were affected.
On Nov. 12, MDARD announced the detection of bird flu in multiple flocks in various counties. Three commercial flocks were affected in Ottawa County, one backyard flock in Monroe County, and a backyard flock in St. Clair County.
This is the 10th case in Ottawa County this year, the fourth in Monroe County, and the first in St. Clair, MDARD reported. The affected flocks in Ottawa were on commercial turkey meat farms, but there was no specification for Monroe or St. Clair.
On Nov. 14, APHIS reported that for the previous 30 days there have been 38 commercial flocks and 38 backyard flocks affected by HPAI. Commercial flocks include 21 in Indiana and 6 in Michigan. These combined confirmations totaled 1.66 million affected birds.
For more information on bird flu, visit APHIS at https://www.aphis.usda.gov/livestock-poultry-disease/avian/avian-influenza.
