The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) confirmed the presence of virulent Newcastle disease (nVD) in a small flock of pet chickens in Coconino County, Arizona.
This is the first case of vND in Arizona.
This case is believed to be connected to the current outbreak of vND in California, as tests show the virus is almost identical to the virus causing disease in California, APHIS stated in a press release. Since May 2018, more than 400 cases of Newcastle disease have been confirmed as part of this southern California outbreak, primarily in backyard exhibition birds.
APHIS is working with the Arizona Department of Agriculture to respond to the finding. Federal and State partners are also conducting additional surveillance and testing in the area.
Prior to the discovery of vND in Arizona, APHIS had reported 409 cases in California, with the bulk of those being in San Berndardino, Riverside and Los Angeles Counties. Ventura County and Almeda County, California, have each had one confirmed case, as has Utah County, Utah.
At the time the Utah case was confirmed, animal health agencies said three of the birds in the affected Utah flock had been moved there from Los Angeles County.
While most cases of vND were confirmed in flocks of “backyard exhibition chickens,” three cases were in commercial poultry flocks, all in Riverside County. The most recent vND case in commercial poultry was in a commercial layer flock that included at least 100,000 birds. That case was confirmed on January 10. Prior to that, another commercial layer flock was affected. That case was confirmed on January 8, and there were 159,000 laying hens in that flock. The first case of vND confirmed in a commercial flock during this outbreak was in a flock of 110,000 layer pullets, and that case was announced on December 15, 2018.
