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APHIS offers the Defend the Flock education program to provide the tools and resources you need to make sure that you are doing everything possible to keep your birds healthy and reduce the risk that an infectious disease will spread from your property to other flocks. Biosecurity is the key to keeping our Nation’s poultry healthy!

The Defend the Flock program provides information and resources from USDA and other experts for keeping poultry healthy. It includes practical tips from growers like you, veterinarians, state agencies, scientists, and industry professionals for practicing biosecurity every day. Biosecurity is a team effort. We have to work together to defend our nation’s flocks. Resources include information needed to practice good biosecurity is available here -- checklists, resource guides, videos, and other tools.

See also: Poultry Health for more diseases

Title 9: Animals and Animal Products, Part 94

The United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) confirmed the presence of virulent Newcastle disease in a small flock of backyard exhibition chickens in Los Angeles County, California. It is important to note that the presence of the disease is not a food safety concern. This is the first case of virulent Newcastle disease, previously referred to as exotic Newcastle disease, in the U.S. since 2003.

After 2 years, California has been declared free of virulent Newcastle Disease. Effective June 1, 2020 the CDFA and the USDA have announced an end to the vND quarantine in southern California. You can read the CDFA press release here.