A nonprofit law firm serving rural California counties is suing the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) for failing to release the names and locations of dairies affected by recent H5N1 bird flu outbreaks.
California Rural Legal Assistance Inc. (CRLA), along with the California First Amendment Coalition, filed the lawsuit Nov. 3 in Sacramento County Superior Court. The complaint urges the court to compel the CDFA to produce the public records requested by the plaintiff with no redactions so that CRLA can use the information to better protect agricultural workers from being exposed to the disease.
“Throughout 2024 and 2025, H5N1 … has spread in California dairies, killing thousands of cows, sickening dozens of dairy workers and jeopardizing public health,” the lawsuit states. “… CRLA has engaged in extensive outreach to distribute personal protective equipment … to dairy workers and educate dairy workers about the risks of bird flu and their rights as workers who may be exposed to the virus.”
The state Department of Public Health reports that although people rarely get bird flu, confirmed H5N1 cases in the state number 38, with the most recent human infection taking place on Jan. 14 of this year. The potential of human exposure to the virus led Gov. Gavin Newsom to proclaim a state of emergency on Dec. 18, 2024, prompting state officials to take more aggressive actions to counter potential outbreaks.
In nearly all of the confirmed cases, the source was determined to be cattle that had been infected by birds, according to the Department of Public Health.
The CDFA did not respond to a request for comment about the allegations in the lawsuit, but emails between the department and CRLA attorney David Cremins indicate the CDFA Legal Office concluded that disclosure of certain information through the state Public Records Act was not in the public interest.
“The public interest is served by not disclosing the names or locations of dairies that are under active HPAI (highly pathogenic avian influenza) quarantine because there are biosecurity risks with releasing the locations to the public,” the legal office said in a June email. “HPAI could be intentionally or unintentionally spread to uninfected dairies and poultry producers if the locations of quarantined dairies are released to the public.”
In addition, not disclosing the information encourages dairies to cooperate with government agencies working to stem the spread of the virus, the legal office said.
CRLA, however, contends that the release of information of where outbreaks have occurred, or the locations of dairies that the agency has placed under quarantine, can be used to help protect workers and the public.
“The dangers H5N1 poses to dairy workers and the wider public can be significantly reduced through research, sanitation protocols and other protective behaviors, many of which are required by state regulations,” Cremins said in a prepared statement. “To ensure those protective behaviors are in place, we must know which dairies are impacted by H5N1 outbreaks. CDFA is the only state agency empowered to gather such information, but they are keeping the public in the dark about this evolving threat.”
He told the Southern California Record in an email that CRLA has yet to receive a response to the lawsuit.
“We believe the dairies most impacted are in the Central Valley, extending as north as Stanislaus, but that several counties in Southern California – especially Kern and Riverside – have also seen significant impact (from bird flu),” Cremins said.
The CDFA did release some records about bird flu to Cremins, but the names and addresses of the dairies affected were redacted. CRLA is asking the court to compel the agency to produce all of the documents Cremins requested in their entirety.
