Virulent Newcastle disease (vND) has spread into Utah, state and federal agencies confirmed.
According to separate press releases from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food (UDAF), the Utah case is related to the outbreak of vND that has been active in southern California since May 2018.
Three of the birds in the recently affected flock, described by UDAF as “exhibition poultry” were moved to Utah from Los Angeles County, California, in January, and placed into a small domestic flock in Utah County, Utah.
The state agency stated that it received a report of a possible case of vND and quarantined the site. The presence of vND in the birds was confirmed by the National Veterinary Services (NVS) laboratories in Iowa.
UDAF further stated that the disease is currently contained to the one flock and has not been detected in any commercial poultry flocks in the state.
APHIS and UDAF are working together to respond to the disease situation and are conducting additional surveillance and testing in the area.
While this is the first confirmed case of vND in Utah, there have been 299 confirmed cases in California.
Three of those 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.
Before the recent vND outbreak occurred, the last time there was a confirmed case of vND in a United States commercial poultry flock was in 2003, according to APHIS.