The bird flu outbreak that has been ripping through California farms since August is starting to abate, state health and agriculture officials said Wednesday, heralding "good news" in a health crisis that has sent egg prices soaring nationwide.
"Thankfully, we do see here in California the flu outbreak is slowing down," said Dr. Erica Pan, the director of the California Department of Public Health, during a committee hearing at the state Senate.
There have been no new cases in humans since January, Pan said. And State Veterinarian Dr. Annette Jones said the state's almost 1,000 dairy herds of cows are getting sick at a slower pace. The virus has started to decline in poultry as well, with dozens of flocks coming off quarantine and being approved to restock their birds.
"The good news is we are lifting quarantines now faster than we're placing them," Jones said. "There were times in December where I wanted to break down in tears, because every night we got 30 new cases."
The positive reports come after months of escalating case numbers and knock-on effects across the country from the agricultural heartland of the state, with California Gov. Gavin Newsom declaring a statewide emergency over bird flu in December. The resulting skyrocketing egg prices exacerbated by farmers culling entire flocks has also become a national political issue, noted even during President Donald Trump's address to Congress on Tuesday.
Some 753 herds have been infected statewide while 38 human cases have been reported.
On Wednesday, state officials reported that in poultry, there have been three distinct waves of the virus since 2022 when flocks caught the virus from wild birds. The state experienced the worst outbreak ever in December, when poultry farmers successfully kept wild bird infections at bay, but started seeing spread from dairy herds to their birds.
Still, state officials indicated it will likely be a while before the price of eggs goes down, as California still contends with the worst outbreak in the state's history.
Return to News Home
