WASHINGTON — In the past 30 days, a mere three commercial poultry flocks have been affected by highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), with two of them occurring this past week.

As previously announced by the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food (UDAF), 1.8 million laying hens were involved in an outbreak in Cache County, Utah. Additionally, a commercial layer flock in Franklin County, Wash., was reported to have had an outbreak around the same time on Oct. 15, according to the US Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). The outbreak in Franklin County affected a total of 839,700 birds.

The most recent detection of the disease in a commercial flock before these two outbreaks occurred nearly a month prior on Sept. 18. A commercial turkey flock in Merced County, Calif., reported an outbreak affecting 62,800 birds. This was the first outbreak in a commercial turkey flock in two months.

Along with these three outbreaks, APHIS confirmed HPAI in four backyard flocks over the past 30 days, leading the total number of affected birds over this period to be 2.76 million.