Some 1.7 million birds lost
Latest dairy farm numbers reach 645 in California
USDA reported Monday December 16 that two more Tulare County poultry ranches have been hit by H5N1 Bird Flu resulting in the destruction of all the birds there. The results were confirmed December 13 and 14.
The two unnamed farms include one broiler ranch where 514,0000 birds died and one duck meat farm where 41,000 birds were lost.
On December 10 another ranch in the county was hit resulting in the euthanizing of 320,200 broilers.
With these three recent ranches,Tulare County has now seen 9 poultry operations affected by the highly contagious virus with the total number of birds lost adding up to around 1.7 million since late September.
Both nearby Kings and Kern Counties I’ve also suffered the loss of millions of birds from the spread of this strain of bird flu.Kern County has lost 3.2 million egg layers.
Latest dairy numbers
Following an investigation by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) and rapid disease detection by California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory System (CAHFS), the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL) has confirmed H5N1 Bird Flu in 311 dairies in the last 30 days in California. Since California’s first detection of H5N1 Bird Flu in dairies, there have been a total of 645 infected dairies with 56 of those affected, fully recovered and released from quarantine. All quarantine released dairies will be placed on a surveillance list for weekly testing through creameries to maintain continued monitoring of the virus in California. Data as of Dec 17.