Is bird flu subsiding in Tulare County? What to know as virus reshapes farming practices
1/13/25
Excerpt:
Despite the concerns about the future of bird flu, recent numbers show the disease has been declining in Tulare County.
There were 18 confirmed cases of human bird flu in Tulare County, according to the Tulare County Health and Human Services Agency’s Jan. 7 update. There has not been a new case in the county since Dec. 10.
New confirmed cases of bird flu among cattle were found in 149 California dairies in the past 30 days, according to the state's Department of Food and Agriculture. This is less than half of the 311 California dairies with bird flu cases reported last month.
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A commercial duck meat breeder in Tulare County had an outbreak affecting 41,100 ducks that was reported on Dec. 14, but the county has not had a bird flu case affecting poultry since.
These reports seem to show that bird flu is subsiding in Tulare County. But ag officials aren't as optimistic.
"I think we have seen it breakthrough its highest rate of infection,” said Tricia Stever Blattler, Tulare County Farm Bureau executive director. “I am certainly not a medical professional, but my anecdotal knowledge of the situation is that a big percentage of our dairies have had it, have had an ability to respond to it and treat it, and are coming off of it.
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“From some of the information I'm seeing, I think it's the case that the infection rate has slowed,” said Tom Tucker, Tulare County agricultural commissioner, who gets much of his information from the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
“Part of what they were telling us, at least in the dairy side of things, was that they were waiting for what they believed was herd immunity,” he said. “At some point, whoever was going to get infected, got infected, and whoever wasn't, wasn't.”
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