More than a million turkeys have been euthanized after outbreaks of highly-pathogenic avian influenza in the United States. They won't make it to Thanksgiving dinner tables.
And the flu has also claimed nearly two million hens in a flock in Oregon.
In Canada, there have been recent outbreaks in Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and on two farms in Wellington County, Ont.
The total turkeys felled since the first confirmed turkey farm outbreak in late August in Faulk County, S.D., is now 1,090,700 from 26 farms in six states, according to the federal agriculture department.
The last seven weeks have seen confirmed cases across the country from 33 commercial poultry farms and 17 backyard flocks since Aug. 27 — 50 flocks in 44 days — following only a handful of isolated cases nationwide in the previous 90 days.
The renewed surge of HPAI coincides with autumn wild bird migrations.
