State Senator Melissa Hurtado (D-Sanger) frustrated by lack of wastewater monitoring for the most risky H5N1 bird flu in the state: dairy workers, herds and businesses in the Central Valley region Poultry business is the most concentrated.
On Tuesday, she proposed a bill to address the issue. Called the Wastewater Monitoring Act, if passed, each California County will require at least one wastewater monitoring site. The bill would require the state’s Department of Public Health to expand its current wastewater network, known as Cal-Suwers, to include all counties “and prioritize underserved and high-risk areas.”
Among dairy cows and dairy workers, the H5N1 bird flu virus has zero in California. Since the virus was first reported on dairy farms in March 2024, California accounts for 77% of U.S. herd infections, as well as 38 of the country’s 68 human cases.
Hertado said that last summer, her father and niece fell ill with unknown respiratory illness. She said they lived in the central valley near the poultry and dairy operations but did not test H5N1.
The Central Valley where most California dairy farms are located has been the center of the outbreak. However, when it comes to wastewater monitoring, health officials use to remind them of the presence and concentration of pathogens, such as H5N1, seasonal flu, Covid-19 and Norovirus, In this part of the state, surveillance of the virus is almost never completed.
In fact, this does not exist in some counties including Tulare and the King.
In California, health officials say they are monitoring 78 locations in 36 counties to learn about the various viruses. They said they were looking for bird flu except for two locations.
“We had a bird flu outbreak. “It mainly runs cows and herds in the central valley,” Hertado said. “Now, we don’t have any wastewater monitors, and wastewater monitoring is being carried out there. The law will change that. ”
