Sept. 11, 2025:
South Dakota is at the epicenter of this fall’s bird flu season with a total of 134,900 turkeys at three facilities already killed to contain the spread, and reports coming in about thousands more. The only other state reporting confirmed infections in commercial flocks during the last 30 days is North Dakota, where 60,300 turkeys have been killed in response, according to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Detections this early in the season are troubling, according to Beth Thompson, South Dakota’s state veterinarian. The peak avian influenza seasons typically coincide with the fall and spring migration of wild birds, which can carry the virus without becoming sick. The spread of bird flu before those migrations begin is concerning.
Sept. 5, 2025:
Avian flu has hit turkey farms in North Dakota and South Dakota.
Agriculture Dot Com says it’s the first bird flu cases in U.S. commercial flocks since early July.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service confirmed the outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza in northeast South Dakota. That meant 55,400 birds were killed to prevent the spread of the disease. The North Dakota Department of Agriculture said this week that bird flu was confirmed in a farm right along the South Dakota border.
“After a quiet summer, it’s not unexpected that we have another case of HPAI as birds are gathering to begin the fall migration,” said North Dakota Ag Commissioner Doug Goehring. The North Dakota State Veterinarian said 60,000 birds had to be destroyed.
The USDA also said in August that avian flu was confirmed at a live-bird market in Los Angeles, California County, and in backyard birds in New York state.
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