San Joaquin Valley residents must not be second class when testing for bird flu | Opinion

Tulare County has long been recognized as one of the top agricultural regions in the nation.

Now it has a distinction it doesn’t want: No. 1 in California when it comes to people with bird flu.

There have been 18 cases of people testing positive for the avian illness in Tulare County. That is not surprising, given that the virus causing bird flu has spread to dairy cattle, and Tulare County is California’s top dairy producer. Dairy workers are among those most at risk of getting the flu, given the close contact they can have with infected cattle. Without protective equipment — like a well-fitting mask, goggles and gloves — workers stand a good chance of becoming infected when touching mucus, saliva or poop from an animal. For people, bird flu is a disease for which there is no vaccine.

But while there are data on who is testing positive for the illness, the county — and the southern San Joaquin Valley in general — is a black hole when it comes to analyzing wastewater for the virus. Scientists can examine wastewater for pathogens and get a better idea on how a disease is spreading. This occurred during the COVID pandemic and proved informative to public health officials.

But Tulare County, and most other locales from Bakersfield to Fresno, has a notable lack of testing, or surveillance, of the waste stream. That is something that state Sen. Melissa Hurtado, a Sanger native now living in Bakersfield, hopes to change.

Hurtado plans to introduce a bill to expand wastewater testing to underserved, high-risk communities in rural parts of the state.

Hurtado, a Democrat whose district stretches from Bakersfield to Fresno County, is on the right track. Rural communities deserve the same level of health monitoring that urban areas enjoy. She should champion such legislation, and her colleagues in the Democratic-majority Senate and Assembly should support it.

Disease from wild birds

The disease is called bird flu because it originated in wild waterfowl. From there the virus spread to farm poultry and dairy cattle.

Tulare County is not the only place in the San Joaquin Valley confronting bird flu in humans. Kings County has had as many as 10 people contract the virus. Kern, Madera, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced and Fresno counties have also reported cases.

Most people who contract the virus report flu-like symptoms, such as red eyes, mild fever and muscle aches. In rare cases, the illness proves fatal. On Monday the first human death in the United States was reported. A 65-year-old patient from Louisiana who had underlying medical conditions died after exposure to wild birds and a backyard flock, The New York Times said.

The federal Centers for Disease Control said that 66 people nationwide have had the illness — with 37 of those occurring in California. Last month Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a public health emergency because the virus spread from San Joaquin Valley dairy herds to cows in Southern California, despite quarantines to keep that from happening.

So far there has not been any human-to-human transmission of the disease, but researchers worry that the virus will mutate and get passed from one person to another.

A top concern of public health officials has been people consuming raw milk. Putting dairy products through pasteurization will make them safe. But raw milk does not undergo such treatment.

California’s top producer of raw milk is Fresno County’s Raw Farm. It was put into quarantine a month ago by state officials, meaning its milk could not be sold nor any of its cattle removed from the property.

In late September, bird flu infected a Merced County turkey ranch, causing the destruction of 64,000 birds. A month later Bee staff writer Robert Rodriguez reported that an outbreak of avian influenza led to the destruction of 786,600 broiler chickens at a Tulare County ranch.

“Eating undercooked or uncooked poultry, eggs, or consuming unpasteurized milk from infected dairy cows, could also be an exposure risk for infection with avian influenza A viruses,” the CDC says. “Consuming properly prepared and cooked (or pasteurized) products is safe.”

More testing needed

The bird flu virus has been detected in wastewater sites in Los Angeles and the Bay Area. But sampling is spotty in the San Joaquin Valley, despite how it is where most of the state’s dairy and poultry workers live. Hurtado hopes to change that with improved surveillance.

The issue is personal to her. Both her 75-year-old father and 7-year-old niece came down with illnesses that showed symptoms of bird flu. But because neither of them were in groups considered at risk, like ag workers, they were not tested for the illness.

“This why wastewater surveillance is so important,” she told the editorial board. “The strategy has not covered all areas across the state equitably, and has not covered the areas potentially the most impacted.”

A Tulare County health department official told the Los Angeles Times that independent sewage utilities have chosen to not take part in the state’s surveillance program. That’s wrong. Monitoring wastewater for pathogens should be required of every sewage utility. If necessary, ratepayers can be charged for the work; it is a small price to pay for better public health.

Hurtado should put forward the bill she envisions so health officials can have as much data as possible. The region’s residents are no less important than people living elsewhere in California.

This editorial is updated with information from Sen. Hurtado.

This story was originally published January 7, 2025 at 5:30 AM.