WILLMAR, MINN. – Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) has been confirmed in a commercial turkey flock in Meeker County, Minn., that supplies Jennie-O Turkey Store, a business unit of Hormel Foods Corp., Austin, Minn. Another case of HPAI also was found in a backyard flock in Mower County, Minn.
State officials have quarantined the affected premises and the flocks will be depopulated, according to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service of the US Department of Agriculture. The two confirmed cases of HPAI, which were disclosed on March 26, bring the total number of cases to 61 since Feb. 8, when a case was announced in a commercial turkey flock in Dubois, Ind.