United States: In a statement released on January 7, California’s state veterinarian announced an immediate ban on all poultry and cattle exhibitions in response to the ongoing spread of H5N1 avian flu.
The move comes as the virus continues to affect both commercial and backyard poultry, as well as dairy cows. Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency on December 18 to allocate additional resources to combat the virus and also prevent its further spread to humans and other animals.
More detected in poultry and cattle, more wild-bird alerts
Further, the USDA APHIS reported four additional H5N1 exposures in dairy cows in California the remainder of the year, along with 1 in Michigan a state announced October 2024. These new confirmations raise the national count to 923 and count for California to 706.
As reported by the CIDRAP, APHIS also identified one more highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza in poultry, in a layer farm in Ohio’s Darke County with 245300 birds.
Meanwhile, the Michigan Department of Agriculture and also Rural Development today confirmed highly pathogenic avian flu in a backyard flock in Oakland County, part of the Detroit metropolitan area.
Still, Arizona Game and Fish yesterday called on hunters and falconers do things that would help them avoid the virus and minimize its spread in the state’s poultry and wild birds. It noted that the wild waterbird species which participate in low intensity cycling transfer the virus weakly or subclinical and duck hunting are usually not very sick.
News which is related to this:
Vets working in this country for example the Iceland’s Food and Veterinary Authority (MAST) this week confirmed that highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza was discovered during the post-mortem of a dead kitten as reported by the Avian Flu Diary, an infectious disease news blog translated from Icelandic.
Officials revealed the 10-week- old kitten which fell ill on December 22, also died and two cats from the same litter which also died were not tested. Some of the other cats found in the home had left the home before the other cats contracted the diseases and do not manifest the symptoms.