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California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, issued an emergency proclamation on Wednesday in response to bird flu cases in the state.

Why It Matters

Bird flu is mostly found in poultry and wild birds with 123.7 million poultry affected as of Monday and 10,852 wild birds affected as of Tuesday, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced in late October that the first case of bird flu in a pig was detected in Oregon.

The virus has even spread to humans with a total of 61 confirmed cases across eight states, the CDC says. In 37 cases, the patient was exposed to infected cattle. Meanwhile, 21 infected people were exposed to poultry. In one case, the patient was exposed to another type of animal and in two cases, the source of the infection was unknown.

A majority of the bird flu cases, 34 to be exact, have been from California. Health officials, meanwhile, say the risk to people from bird flu remains low. Bird flu can spread from infected birds to other animals and humans. No person-to-person spread of the virus has been detected.

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