Following diagnoses of H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza on two farms holding growing turkeys in Dubois County, IN., the USDA-APHIS has belatedly announced surveillance of wild birds in the Mississippi and Central Flyways. 

To date surveillance over the Atlantic Flyway has indicated an extensive level of shedding by a variety of waterfowl species extending from the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada to Florida in the U.S.  The need to deploy resources to the Mississippi flyway involved in the 2015 epornitic of HPAI is self-evident.  The program will involve collection of 14,500 wild birds samples representing almost half of the 31,000 to be obtained among 49 states in 2022.  Activities will include:

• Sample collection in the watersheds of the Central and Mississippi Flyways
• Sampling of wild birds species from birds removed from airports or from various U.S. agency captures including banding
• Vigilance over any episodes of morbidity or mortality in wild birds

Results of surveys on migratory waterfowl will be posted on the APHIS website as a routine. To date no results have been released, notwithstanding two cases in broilers in Kentucky and four in turkeys in Indiana during the current month.