Exotic Newcastle Disease
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Newcastle Disease has Been Confirmed in Commercial Poultry in California

Officials with the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) are conducting an eradication campaign for Newcastle disease. The disease was confirmed on October 1, 2002, and has now spread beyond backyard flocks to affect three commercial operations. Clinical sings in infected birds include respiratory, nervous, and gastrointestinal signs. Mortality is up to 90% of exposed birds. Investigations are on-going and all figures are pending final validation. Veterinary Services (VS) is working to rapidly expand staff on the task force. Over the next three months, VS expects to deploy 100 people per week to the task force for three-week rotations and is canceling meetings and training to meet the personnel demands.

Situation Update:

Investigations are on-going and all figures are pending final validation.

Number of premises depopulated:		280
Number of contacts:		846
Number of premises depopulated:		614
Premises waiting to be depopulated:		512
Birds depopulated to date:		143,525 (approximate)

Counties with positive flocks:		Los Angeles
		Riverside
		San Bernardino
		San Diego

Operational Update:

The request for additional funds from the Commodity Credit Corporation has been approved by the Secretary of Agriculture and is at the Office of Management and Budget awaiting approval.

Three commercial flocks have been confirmed with Newcastle disease in Riverside, San Bernardino, and San Diego Counties, CA. The three operations house approximately 1.2 million birds. Approximately 131,030 of these birds have already been depopulated.

To date, the last reported positive case of Newcastle disease in California was January 2, 2003.

The California State Veterinarian has imposed a quarantine (Food and Agriculture Code Section 9562) on the following counties:

All of Los Angeles County;
All of Orange County;
Portions of Riverside County;
Portions of San Bernardino County; and
All of San Diego County.

Effective November 21, 2002, APHIS imposed a federal quarantine that regulates the interstate movement of poultry and poultry products from Los Angeles, portions of Riverside, and portions of San Bernardino Counties, CA. APHIS is working on extending the federal quarantine to also include all of Orange and San Diego Counties.

Poultry species affected by California's quarantine are:

Chickens
Turkeys
Ducks
Geese
Partridges
Pheasants
Quails
Guinea Fowl
Pea Fowl (Peacocks)
Doves
Pigeons
Swans
Ratites
Ratite Eggs

Veterinary Services has worked with the U.S. Postal Service to affirm that poultry will not be able to move out of the quarantined areas through the mail.

State and animal health officials are conducting door-to-door surveys to identify fowl and other birds in the affected areas and are following up on epidemiological associations.

To date, depopulation, cleaning and disinfecting, and carcass disposal are being conducted by CDFA and APHIS.

CDFA has closed all poultry exhibits and fairs and expositions within the State of California.

Affected and exposed poultry are being euthanized and double-bagged. Task Force members are disinfecting the bags and transporting the carcasses to restricted landfills for burial.

All door-to-door surveillance, along with interviews has established that there have been no links to eastern States within the United States and no exposure to other poultry in other States.

Local commercial table egg layer birds are being closely monitored and will only be allowed to move intrastate under CDFA monitoring and spent-hen movements restricted to the day they are scheduled for processing.

New Trade Issues:

Effective immediately, Canada has placed a ban on all poultry meat and poultry meat products from the State of California. Canada has also banned all hatching eggs and live poultry from the State of California.

Definitions
Emergency Management Issue is for information with no impact on APHIS

Emergency Management Notice is an ongoing incident with potential impact on APHIS

Emergency Management Warning is an ongoing incident with almost certain impact on APHIS