In 2022, in an Avian Flu outbreak, a bird flu was among over 79 million birds. The numbers increased highly from 11.4 million in December to 1.3 million in October. The outbreak is still ongoing today and began back in February 2022 in a Midwest poultry farm.
Many officials have confirmed the increase of the Avian Flu outbreak amongst birds has been spreading across California and some other states. The bird flu outbreak can threaten egg supplies and national poultry. In recent weeks, in California, many farmers have been
euthanizing millions of chickens and ducks because of the avian influenza increases and threats to egg supplies and national poultry.
euthanizing millions of chickens and ducks because of the avian influenza increases and threats to egg supplies and national poultry.
Cases of the Avian Flu continued to occur throughout the U.S. and other countries, also causing great loss in agricultural hubs in Northern California. Maurice Pitesky, an avian disease specialist at the University of California (UC Davis) School of Veterinary Medicine, stated to the Hill, “There’s economy of scale in commercial agriculture, including poultry. No pun intended – if you put your eggs all in one basket, the virus gets into a facility and then all the birds have to be euthanized, unfortunately.”
On midday Friday, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), 10.62 million birds in 63 flocks nationwide were affected by the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreaks within the past 30 days. The spike of HPAI is still currently on rise since mid-fall, and the latest escalation of a nationwide outbreak has flowed since 2022.
In a recent investigation by The California Department of Food and Agriculture, five California counties that currently have active infections of HPAI involve San Joaquin, Fresno, Merced, Marin, and Sonoma. The department stated, “To protect other flocks in California, the locations of the detected infected flocks are currently under quarantine, and the birds are euthanized to prevent further disease spread.”
Last month, Sonoma County declared a state of emergency due to the detection of HPAI in two commercial poultry farms located in the southern portion of the county. Those locations were under quarantine in order to protect other flocks in the region; only about 250,000 birds were euthanized. This action was to help prevent any further spread of the disease but went to the expense of the local agricultural economy. David Rabbit, Sonoma County Supervisor, stated that “Southern Sonoma County poultry farms supply “hundreds of thousands of eggs each and every day,” which in turn bolsters the “food chain for the entire West Coast, if not beyond.” According to APHIS, recently in Sonoma County, only about 494,200 birds are affected by HPAI located in a commercial table egg layer farm.
The ongoing outbreak is described as “an existential issue.” Pitesky said, “We can’t keep on having this happen every year, where we’re having to euthanize and depopulate millions of birds – from a welfare perspective, from an economic perspective,” He added “There is value in having large farms, but I also think we need to be very thoughtful about where we have those large farms.”
