USDA updates virulent Newcastle disease situation

During the week of Jan. 25-31, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) confirmed 26 cases of virulent Newcastle disease in California’s Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.  APHIS also reported that an additional 84 cases were confirmed between Dec. 21, 2018, and Jan. 24, 2019. These detections occurred during the recent government shutdown, and while APHIS employees were responding to the detections during that time, the weekly update messages and updates to the APHIS website were not completed. The delayed updates include two commercial cases in Riverside County, Cal., and one case in backyard exhibition chickens in Utah County, Utah, which had been announced during the shutdown.  Read more