In a brief post, California state veterinarian Dr. Annette Jones said May 22 the California Department of Food & Agriculture (CDFA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture continue to make significant progress toward eradicating virulent Newcastle disease (VND) and completing freedom of disease testing.

Jones said CDFA is on track to release the regional VND quarantine in southern California in the first half of June.

California has been dealing with the current VND outbreak since May 2018, which has mostly affected backyard and exhibition poultry as well as a handful of commercial egg operations in January 2019. During the course of the outbreak, cases were also reported in Arizona and Utah that were traced to California residents moving their birds outside of the quarantine zone.