CENTRAL VALLEY – A local state senator concerned about the spread of bird flu in both livestock and farm workers wants to begin monitoring wastewater for the virus using an existing system set up during COVID.
On Feb. 11, State Senator Melissa Hurtado (D-Sanger) introduced a bill, the Wastewater Surveillance Act, that would require at least one wastewater monitoring site in every California county and expand the list of viruses it’s tracking to include the H5N1 virus or avian influenza. California has accounted for 77% of all U.S. dairy herd infections, 38 of the nation’s 68 human cases and 14% of poultry flock infections of bird flu.
Hurtado told the LA Times her father and niece were both sickened last summer by an unknown respiratory virus and that she has been frustrated with the lack of wastewater monitoring for bird flu in the Central Valley, where the LA Times also reported that the state is monitoring 78 wastewater sites in just 36 of the 58 counties for a range of viruses, but only two sites are reportedly tracking bird flu. Currently, participation in the monitoring network is voluntary. Tulare and Kings counties are among the counties that do not have any wastewater testing but have the highest concentration of human cases among farm workers.
The California Department of Public Health administers the California Wastewater Surveillance Dashboard that provides data from testing wastewater for SARS-CoV-2 virus in California. The data in the dashboard is generated by those participating in the department’s California Surveillance of Wastewaters (Cal-SuWers) network, which also draws data from WastewaterSCAN, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Wastewater Surveillance System, wastewater utilities, and academic, laboratory, and other state and federal partners.
Senate Bill 317 would require every county to establish and maintain at least one wastewater surveillance site to monitor for pathogens and public health indicators. The bill would also require CDPH to prioritize underserved and high-risk areas and to share wastewater surveillance data with health care providers to enable early intervention for emerging health threats.
Federal Follies
Hurtado’s bill took on new importance as it became clear the federal government may not be in any shape to help as massive layoffs and shake ups continue to leave agencies hollow. The federal response
has faced significant disruption in the early weeks of the Trump administration, raising concerns among federal officials, state agencies, veterinarians, and public health experts, reports AgNet West.
Since President Donald Trump assumed office on Jan. 20, two key federal agencies responsible for monitoring and managing the outbreak have delayed critical communications, including bird flu reports and scheduled briefings with Congress and state health officials.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) withheld two weekly reports—one on bird flu transmission and another on surveillance—and canceled multiple meetings with state officials addressing the outbreak.
Additionally, both the CDC and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) refrained from conducting congressional briefings for three weeks, while the USDA did not respond to a state official’s request for information regarding a new program designed to safeguard the nation’s food supply. These delays have heightened concerns among federal health staff about the timely dissemination of crucial information, particularly as the outbreak continues to spread, with increasing cases reported among both humans and livestock.
Industry Restart
The bird flu outbreak has decimated the California egg laying industry as chicken ranches up and down the state have been forced to kill off entire flocks to prevent spread of the virus. The H5N1 bird flu has hit California the hardest with about two-thirds of egg layers wiped out as of January.
Once one of the largest egg producers in the state – with more than 2.5 million hens and one million pullets producing about 36 million eggs per month — Central Valley Eggs near Wasco is quiet after bird flu required the depopulation of its chickens. Destroying the flock is the only way to stop the virus’ spread in birds.
The Kern County ranch was only recently cleared from quarantine and now has two-week-old young pullets in one house to start the rebuilding of the flock of egg layers, says one staffer. It could take about five months to get back into production of eggs.
While the state’s meat chicken supply has not been affected as much due to the quick maturation of the flock to slaughter, turkey and duck operations that take longer to head to your kitchen table and are still being hit by the virus.
Egg producers have taken a big hit as are consumers who are paying an average $8 to $9 for a dozen eggs.
Livestock Vaccines
There may be some movement from the federal government to help with a new strategy of vaccinating chickens from the virus.
The Trump administration says it wants to stress vaccinations and tighter biosecurity instead of killing off millions of chickens when the disease strikes a flock, says an AP story this week. The industry has been urging the government to begin widespread flock vaccinations since the vaccine is already available. The USDA has already approved field trials to test vaccines that could prevent dairy cows from getting the H5N1 strain of bird flu.
It is unclear if recently confirmed Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. would take that step. Kennedy has consistently made statements he is opposed to vaccines for humans but has not commented on vaccines for livestock.
The federal government will seek “better ways, with biosecurity and medication and so on” rather than the current standard practice of destroying all the birds on a farm when an infection is detected, Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, said Sunday on the CBS program “Face the Nation.”
