California's state veterinarian in a January 7 statement announced a ban on all poultry and cattle exhibitions until further notice as part of the state's efforts to curb the spread of H5N1 avian flu to people and to uninfected animals.

The virus has become widespread in dairy cows, as well as in commercial and backyard poultry, and Governor Gavin Newsome on December 18 declared a state of emergency to free up more resources to battle the virus.

Annette Jones, DVM, state veterinarian, said, "We will continue to assess the threat over the next few months and rescind this ban if the situation changes."

More detections in poultry and cattle, more wild-bird warnings

In other developments, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) confirmed 4 more H5N1 detections in dairy cattle, 3 in California and apparently 1 in Michigan that the state first announced in October 2024. The new confirmations push the national total to 923 and California's total to 706. 

APHIS also confirmed one more H5N1 outbreak in poultry, which involves a layer farm in Ohio's Darke County that has 245,300 birds.

Separately, the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development today reported highly pathogenic avian flu in a backyard flock in Oakland County, which includes the Detroit metro area.

Meanwhile, Arizona Game and Fish yesterday urged hunters and falconers to take steps to avoid and prevent the spread of the virus, given recent detections in the state's domestic poultry and wild birds. It said dabbling duck species that carry the virus rarely show illness signs, but Canada geese, eagles, other raptors, and domestic poultry appear to be susceptible to more severe clinical disease. 

Iceland's Food and Veterinary Authority (MAST) this week announced that highly pathogenic H5N5 avian influenza has been found during the autopsy of a kitten that died, according to a statement translated and posted by Avian Flu Diary, an infectious disease news blog. 

Officials said the 10-week-old kitten died on December 22, shortly after two cats from the same litter died but were not tested. Other littermates had left the home before the other cats were sick and remain asymptomatic.

The kittens are from Ísafjörður in the Westfjords region of northwest Iceland, but the one diagnosed as having H5N5 had arrived in Reykjavík, the country's capital.

MAST said the same H5N5 strain had been detected in Iceland's wild birds in September 2024 and in poultry in December 2024. It added that the cats likely contracted the virus from wild birds.

A separate report to the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) said the kittens' main clinical signs were lethargy, loss of appetite, cramps, and stiffness.

H5N5 expands geographic range, including Greenland

The most recent quarterly overview of avian flu from the European Centres for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European Food Safety Agency (ESFA) said H5N5 viruses continue to expand their geographic and species range, with spillovers to domestic birds reported in Iceland, Norway, and the United Kingdom.

In a new related development, animal health officials in Greenland reported highly pathogenic H5N5 in a northern fulmar, a sea bird, found dead in October in the northwest, according to notification today from WOAH.

The China Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC) today announced the country's first confirmed clade 1b mpox cases, which involve a foreigner who had lived in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and four close contacts.

In a statement, China CDC said it quickly launched investigations that involve state and provinces, such as Zhejiang, Guangdong, Beijing, and Tianjin.

The four close contacts of the index case-patient mainly had mild symptoms, such as rash. No additional infections have been found among the patients' general contacts. The patients are receiving treatment and are under monitoring.

Twelfth clade 1 appearance outside of Africa

China is the twelfth country outside of Africa to detect clade 1 mpox, which is different from the clade 2 mpox virus spreading globally. The novel clade 1b virus is thought to spread more easily among contacts, including in households. Most cases have been linked to travel to affected African countries.

Outside of Africa, limited secondary transmission has now been reported in the United Kingdom, Germany, and China.

The clade 1b virus is driving outbreak activity in some of Africa's current hot spots, such as the DRC, where household transmission has especially affected children.

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) has been detected in a wild deer in Chippewa County, Wisconsin, for the first time, prompting the renewal of baiting and feeding bans in two counties.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) reported the positive case of the fatal neurodegenerative disease yesterday in a 1-year-old buck harvested by a hunter within 10 miles of the Barron and Dunn county borders.

In accordance with state law, Chippewa County will renew its 3-year deer baiting and feeding ban, and Barron County will renew its 2-year baiting and feeding bans. Dunn County already has a 3-year baiting and feeding ban and thus will be unaffected by the finding.

"Baiting or feeding deer encourages them to congregate unnaturally around a shared food source where infected deer can spread CWD through direct contact with healthy deer or indirectly by leaving behind infectious prions in their saliva, blood, feces and urine," the DNR wrote.

First Wisconsin cases identified in 2002

The Wisconsin DNR has been tracking the state's wild white-tailed deer population for CWD since 1999, with the first cases identified in 2002.

Baiting or feeding deer encourages them to congregate unnaturally around a shared food source where infected deer can spread CWD through direct contact with healthy deer or indirectly by leaving behind infectious prions in their saliva, blood, feces and urine.

CWD is caused by infectious misfolded proteins called prions, which spread among cervids such as deer, elk, and moose. The disease isn't known to infect humans, but some experts fear it could cause illness similar to another prion disease: bovine spongiform encephalopathy ("mad cow" disease). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns against eating meat from infected animals.