BREATHITT VETERINARY CENTER DIAGNOSTIC ROUNDS Kentucky HPAI Outbreak
by Sam McGuffin, MPH and Tracie M. Jenkins, MS
On December 20th, 2021, H5N1 — highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) — was detected in Can- ada for the first time since 2015. Te outbreak occurred on the island portion of Newfoundland and Lab- rador, infecting an exhibition farm’s chickens, turkeys, geese, ducks, emus, Guinea fowl, and peafowl. Te Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) later detected HPAI on a second exhibition farm in Newfound- land and Labrador on January 11th and on non-commercial flocks in Nova Scotia on February 3rd. On February 4th, HPAI was confirmed in a commercial flock on the western side of Nova Scotia. [Source 1]
Te United States did not see HPAI outside of wild bird cases until February 8th, when a strain was iden- tified in a turkey flock in Dubois County, Indiana. Cases were quickly identified in other states in both non-commercial and commercial flocks. Kentucky was soon at the forefront of the virus’s spread through the U.S. with HPAI confirmed in samples from commercial broiler chickens in Fulton County and com- mercial turkeys in Webster County. [Source 2]
Te Breathitt Veterinary Center (BVC), the University of Kentucky’s Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (UKVDL), and the USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL) worked in conjunction to identify HPAI cases and conduct vigilant surveillance across the commonwealth of Kentucky. Te partic- ular strain of HPAI identified in Kentucky was a Eurasian lineage goose/Guangdong H5 clade 2.3.4.4b, which was characterized as causing not only high mortality, but also a dramatic decrease in water consump- tion. From February 11th to March 15th, the BVC tested an estimated 14,204 birds from 27 counties. [Source 3] [Source 4] [FIGURE 1]
As of March 21st, 2022, the current U.S. outbreak has resulted in a loss of 12,866,737 birds. HPAI con- firmed samples were identified as recently as March 17th in New Hampshire, Delaware, Kansas, Maine, and Iowa. [FIGURE 2]
Continued on pg. 22
Figure 1: Counties in Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee that submitted samples to the BVC for AI testing. Spring 2022 21
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44
