JAVMA report: Newcastle reemerges, spreads in California

Virulent Newcastle disease resurged in Southern California as people broke quarantines by moving birds and farming equipment, according to a report by the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association.

“After 2 months without any known infections, state and federal authorities confirmed new ones starting in mid-November and continuing through the end of the year. Their investigation led to a community in San Bernardino County,” JAVMA reported Jan. 29, 2020.

The state veterinarian reported in late December that 20 new cases were under investigation.

State and federal agriculture authorities have quarantined and depopulated poultry since the spring 2018, when there was an outbreak of virulent Newcastle, a contagious, untreatable, and deadly viral respiratory infection of birds.

The disease spread to about 470 places, most of them homes with backyard flocks, according to USDA data. But most of the deaths from the disease occurred in the four commercial poultry facilities with infections.

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