In Mexico, where VND is endemic and routinely morphs into new, more virulent strains that are resistant to vaccines, it is unlikely that anyone reports the disease. If no one reports the disease, at least in the technical sense, there is "no problema", and this is the front that the world sees. They may or may not vaccinate, some chickens get sick and die, others survive and pass on their resistance, unfortunately some survivors, just like wild birds, probably carry the virus and may infect other birds, especially if they are moved across the border to the US, where no birds are vaccinated and there are huge commercial chicken and egg farms with birds that are extremely susceptible to the disease, since they are bred to devote all resources to maximum egg laying or rapid meat production at the expense of an immune system. Here, we then attempt to "eradicate" the disease with testing and kill zones around any reported or tested positive birds. It is a "big deal" with lots of publicity and the whole world hears about it, and lots of money is spent (money that Mexico could never generate). The US as a country has always been a leader in mass food production, and there are probably more huge factory farms here than in any other country in the world, with the possible exception of China. I'm not sure exactly what goes on over there and I don't think anyone else knows either, though they eat a lot of chicken and have a huge population to support. Many animal diseases get their start in Asian countries and NVD reportedly got it's start in Java/Indonesia and spread around the world. I am going to post a link to an article that gives a reasonable synopsis of the history of the current outbreak (minus any report of the really shabby treatment of citizens by the untrained people of the CDFA) in which Annette Jones admits she should have started much earlier to address the problem, and a link to the "no drama" facebook group that has been founded by Mikki Sharp to counteract Kerri Hand's facebook site and support the USDA/CDFA efforts. No one is allowed to criticize the USDA/CDFA efforts there and she contends that everything put out by Save Our Birds is "misinformation", drama, and counterproductive to ending this outbreak. Still, it does have some useful information posted and they keep track of new cases on there (though they note discrepancies in the reporting of cases between the 2 agencies, just as we have noted here). Both these facebook groups are kind of biased in opposite directions. I personally am glad Kerri Hand took the actions she did because it did make a difference in how the birds and owners were treated and brought problems to public awareness, which caused them to be addressed. I can't help but wonder if this outbreak will be "over" when people quit reporting it (kind of like what probably goes on in Mexico).
https://newfoodeconomy.org/virulent-newcastle-disease-california-vnd-euthanasia/
