Crews from the USDA and the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) have been actively monitoring for avian influenza in California's Stanislaus County, after birds in a layer flock of Japanese quail in tested positive for a low pathogenic form of H5 avian influenza in late April. No new cases of avian influenza have been found since the initial outbreak was reported.
“We continue to survey in the area, but at this point we have just the one outbreak in the one location in Stanislaus County, California,” said Steve Lyle, spokesman for CDFA. “We are encouraged at what we haven’t found at this point, and we continue to not detect the disease in other poultry in the area.”
Inspections have been conducted at properties within a 10-kilometer radius of the affected farm, which was placed under quarantine and has been depopulated. The farms within that 10-kilometer radius include both commercial and non-commercial poultry, Lyle said.
The layer house affected by avian influenza contained about 56,000 adult quail. The farm also housed about 39,000 quail in a brooder house. Nine additional buildings on the premises housed about 21,000 Peking ducks for egg production.
The source of the California avian influenza infection has not yet been determined, but Lyle said that is part of an ongoing investigation.
