State of Emergency Declared For Bird Flu Outbreak

Governor Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency to bolster the statewide response to bird flu in dairy cows.The flu has now expanded from the central valley to southern california. We still don't know the exact locations, but the governor's office says that H-5-N-1 was detected last week in cattle at four Southern California dairy farms. Initial response to control the spread was limited to regional locations in central California, but detection in southern areas of the state has led to the emergency declaration for quote "statewide monitoring." There have been 34 reported human cases of the bird flu in California, with all but one linked to infected cattle, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The source of one of the cases is still unknown. There have been no known human transmissions in the state.