Avian Virus Spreads to 4 More Poultry Farms

A highly contagious avian virus has been found on four more commercial poultry farms within Southern California’s quarantine zone, the most reported in a single day since the outbreak began more than four months ago, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Thursday.

Exotic Newcastle disease, which is harmless to humans and does not affect the safety of poultry meat or eggs, has infected flocks in California, Nevada and Arizona, causing Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman to declare an “extraordinary emergency” in all three states.

About 1,600 state and federal officials are randomly stopping cars and going door-to-door in search of infected birds in the three states.

The emergency also is prompting California officials to begin surveying and sampling all flocks in Central and Northern California to assess the risk to the state’s $3-billion poultry business, the bulk of which is in the Central Valley.

Of the latest infected farms, one was in Riverside County, two were in San Bernardino County and another in San Diego County. These discoveries bring the total number of farms affected to 12, and the number of birds destroyed or slated for destruction to 2.4 million.

Some agricultural experts believe the outbreak began with illegal fighting cocks used for gambling or small flocks kept in backyards for food. Indeed, one of the infected farms identified Thursday was next to a backyard flock in which birds had been found to have the disease.

Newcastle is easily spread by wild birds and by vehicles and is tough to eradicate because many birds die without showing signs of infection. The only way to wipe out the disease quickly in commercial poultry is by destroying infected flocks and imposing a strict quarantine.

The outbreak has cost the state more than $35 million to fight the disease and to compensate farmers for birds they are ordered to destroy, said Larry Cooper of the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

The disease was discovered in October in a backyard flock in Compton.

Despite strict quarantines in affected counties, it spread to Nevada in January and was found last week in Arizona.

The disease is a “threat to the U.S. poultry and bird industries,” Veneman said in a Federal Register notice.

“It constitutes a real danger to the national economy and a potential serious burden on interstate and foreign commerce,” she said.

Times wire services were used in compiling this report.