Bird flu tearing through chicken farms

[Keith_Indy]

As if there’s not enough going on.

Almost 1 Million Egg-Laying Chickens in Iowa and 2.75 Million Chickens in Wisconsin to be Culled as Deadly Bird Flu Spreads Across the US | The Gateway Pundit | by Jim Hᴏft

Highly pathogenic and lethal avian influenza virus is now spreading across the U.S.

www.thegatewaypundit.com

 

[skydelta34]

Individual 6 foot coops and masking requirements will fix that.

 

[Bugzilla]

And how does the bird flu effect the end product?

 

[patience0830]

And how does the bird flu effect the end product?

Bird dies. Eggs end product stops. Now if you wanna eat the dead chickens, well, let's just say I'll not be joining you.

 

[Quiet Observer]

And how does the bird flu effect the end product?

Dead hens do not lay eggs. Stock that die of disease are not acceptable for meat. To keep it from spreading to a wider area, producers may destroy the whole flock if a few members are found with the disease. This may be voluntary or from government pressure. The farmer's income is threatened.
Shortages of poultry and eggs cause consumers prices to increase.

 

[dusty88]

And how does the bird flu effect the end product?

Flu virus shouldn't affect the safety of meat and eggs, but the sick birds don't make it that far. If you had asymptomatic birds, they shouldn't present a risk to eat.


In practicality, flus spread like crazy and cause severe disease because of the crowded conditions of modern poultry housing. For that and to theoretically prevent more spread, the entire flock is destroyed once a pathogenic flu is identified on sight. The premises are decontaminated and the area (usually part of a county) is quarantined meaning no domestic poultry is allowed to be moved. They will also sometimes insist on testing backyard flocks in the area to see if they are part of the disease spread problem.

Indiana BOAH keeps a decent update: https://www.in.gov/boah/species-information/avianbirds/highly-pathogenic-avian-influenza/

 

[Magyars]

Just wondering here...
For a small, personal flock....is there any overt dangers.
Do wild birds carry the avian/bird flu?

 

[dusty88]

Just wondering here...
For a small, personal flock....is there any overt dangers.
Do wild birds carry the avian/bird flu?

Migratory birds are almost always the way avian flus spread around the world. Usually waterfowl are not as susceptible as some other bird species so that combined with their migratory patterns makes them the main source of transmission. As far as other species go, there are some wild bird species that die from it but I don't recall which one. Chickens and turkeys are often highly susceptible, but just like flu in humans the severity can be variable by year and by individual.

Small flocks are at risk but it's hard to say if it would be severe enough to notice. It just depends how pathogenic the virus is when it hits your flock. During the last similar outbreak very few small flocks were identified as being infected, but then they aren't sampled at anywhere near the rate that the commercial farms are.

There are two viewpoints to this. The general USDA viewpoint is that small flocks are not only susceptible, but are part of the transmission problem. If your flock becomes infected, then you can carry the virus to the feed store or the UPS driver can carry it from your property to the property of a commercial farm. Thus the advice is that if avian flu is in your area or even your region, that you cover your bird coops and don't let your birds forage. If you have a sick bird, the state or USDA might want to sample it depending on their current protocol. They might slaughter or quarantine your flock, depending on the results.

The other viewpoint is that some of these flus aren't that pathogenic and don't kill many birds, until they get into a crowded commercial operation. I'm sure if we all spent the winters with thousands of us indoors together we would get a lot more concentrated virus exposure. In other words, if we raised more birds on small flocks in pasture, maybe the flu wouldn't be so bad?

The USDA is frankly not as worried about your backyard flock as they are protecting the food supply, ie the commercial flocks. People who work at poultry operations typically aren't allowed to own poultry at home.


edit: here's the official description from the state. I would add, at minimum, don't walk around properties where other people have chickens during an avian flu outbreak. And those "coop tours" they do in Broad Ripple are almost always a bad idea even when we don't have a flu outbreak.

https://www.in.gov/boah/files/BYB-Biosecurity-Advisory-2-16-22.pdf

 

[dusty88]

My colleagues in poultry medicine are telling me this flu is much more virulent than those we've had in the past. One veterinarian said she had to schedule a depopulation of a large farm after getting a diagnosis and by the time she got to the farm the next day most of the birds were dying anyway.

Backyard chicken producers have often found their uncrowded flocks don't lose a lot of birds to flu but this one might be different. They are even seeing some illnesses in waterfowl, which are normally not greatly affected.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

My colleagues in poultry medicine are telling me this flu is much more virulent than those we've had in the past. One veterinarian said she had to schedule a depopulation of a large farm after getting a diagnosis and by the time she got to the farm the next day most of the birds were dying anyway.

Backyard chicken producers have often found their uncrowded flocks don't lose a lot of birds to flu but this one might be different. They are even seeing some illnesses in waterfowl, which are normally not greatly affected.

I heard on the news this morning that there was a duck farm up near Elkhart that had to destroy 4000 ducks.

 

[MRockwell]

It's not just here in the U.S.

 

[stocknup]

It's not just here in the U.S.

This guy is always spot on ..........I suggest people check out his other videos also ......

I wonder if this bird flu came from Wuhan too ......
Another way of making sure people who want to be self sustained can`t raise/grow their own food source .....
What will be next ? Cows, Pigs, Rabbits,..........Widespread Vegetable garden, fruit trees and crop disease .
It`s not unthinkable . How else can "they" get us all to eat Lab grown and 3D printed meat .

 

[BluePig]

I'm just guessing that the 4H fair this year will be very interesting for the poultry barn...

 

[HoughMade]

How different is this from what has gone on over the last several years?

Being heavily involved in 4H, 4 or 5 years ago (maybe more), all fairs in Indiana were directed to cancel poultry showing at the fair due to some communicable disease. The world did not come to an end. In fact, I recall this being somewhat unusual, but not so strange as to be unheard of.

[ETA] Looked it up- the last time was 2015 and it was due to Avian Flu....and as I said, the world did not end.

 

[Leadeye]

Canned chicken is one of our home staples, it's getting more expensive. A lot eggs from around here locally though, the gardener is now making square omelets to go with the cap block cakes for breakfast.

 

[stocknup]

There must not be a major concern ........I was just able to order 50 Cornish Rock (Meat Bird chicks )online , delivery by mail .

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Just saw a bit on WTHR saying that egg prices have reached $3.00 a dozen now. I'd say that's for the people that are buying the "organic" eggs. I just picked up two 18-count cartons at Kroger for $1.07 each ($1.47 each with the card, plus a 40 cent off coupon). I'm sorry, but if you're willing to spend that much for your "brown" eggs or "organic" eggs, that's on you. You don't have to. Are farm fresh eggs better? Oh yeah, you bet. But to say that the bird flu is depriving your kids of their colored eggs this Easter is BS.

That's a bit like saying, "There must be a water shortage because the price of my Perrier has gone up!"

 

[hooky]

Just saw a bit on WTHR saying that egg prices have reached $3.00 a dozen now. I'd say that's for the people that are buying the "organic" eggs. I just picked up two 18-count cartons at Kroger for $1.07 each ($1.47 each with the card, plus a 40 cent off coupon). I'm sorry, but if you're willing to spend that much for your "brown" eggs or "organic" eggs, that's on you. You don't have to. Are farm fresh eggs better? Oh yeah, you bet. But to say that the bird flu is depriving your kids of their colored eggs this Easter is BS.

That's a bit like saying, "There must be a water shortage because the price of my Perrier has gone up!"

Imagine what the price of eggs are in California now with all their cage free, no "cruelty" nonsense?

They ran a bunch of their producers out of business, caused the remaining producers to have smaller levels of production and have been a net importer of eggs for years now, as long as those producers follow their laws even though they're outside of the state. Of course most out of state producers don't follow the crunchy granola laws of California, so eggs have been outrageously priced since the law went into effect in '15.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Imagine what the price of eggs are in California now with all their cage free, no "cruelty" nonsense?

They ran a bunch of their producers out of business, caused the remaining producers to have smaller levels of production and have been a net importer of eggs for years now, as long as those producers follow their laws even though they're outside of the state. Of course most out of state producers don't follow the crunchy granola laws of California, so eggs have been outrageously priced since the law went into effect in '15.

These idiots clamor for organic, cage free, free range this or that and then complain about prices.

 

[hooky]

Curiousity got the best of me. Here's the large egg selection and prices at the Safeway in my wife's hometown in the SF Bay area.