California declares bird flu emergency

What happened

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) declared a state of emergency Wednesday as a rash of H5N1 avian flu outbreaks at Central Valley dairies spread to Southern California. Hours earlier, federal health officials announced that a Louisiana resident was hospitalized with the nation's first severe bird flu infection.

Who said what

The emergency proclamation is a "targeted action to ensure government agencies have the resources and flexibility they need to respond quickly to this outbreak," Newsom said in a press release. California is home to 645 of America's 865 infected cattle herds, according to the USDA. The virus was also detected in raw milk in California stores, leading to a recall last month. Los Angeles County yesterday "confirmed the deaths of two cats from bird flu infections after drinking the recalled raw milk," The Associated Press said.

None of the 61 confirmed human H5N1 infections have been conclusively tied to raw milk consumption, but 37 were traced to interaction with infected cattle. The Louisiana patient was infected through a backyard bird flock, contracting a "version of the virus that has been found in birds, not the one that is spreading in cows," The New York Times said.

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What next?

Newsom's declaration was a "stark acknowledgment of the increasing seriousness of bird flu's spread," the Times said, but H5N1 "cannot yet spread easily among people" and "still poses little danger to the average American."