Mt Healthy Hatchery

While I certainly agree with your credo that the key to a successful back yard flock of poultry is getting started with the proper information, I feel that your are doing your listeners a disservice with some of the alarmist attitudes that have been recently aired on your program. My family recently celebrated our 50th year in raising hatching eggs and starter pullets for the poultry industry. We have found there is a great satisfaction in finding the optimum growing conditions, feed supply and care of both the birds we grow and the fertile eggs we ship. It is with that 50 years and 3 generations of caring for chickens that I would respectfully challenge some of the information and interpretation of information recently on your program. We, as major breeder producers, the poultry hatcheries (the one you name as well as all others), the farm stores that you do not name and all major distributors of healthy chicks are held to the highest standards of sanitation and health risks and closely monitored by both the state poultry associations In which we reside as well as the National Poultry Improvement Association and the national CDC. We have always strived to keep the public’s health in the foreground while providing quality eggs and chicks to those who enjoy backyard flocks. We have worked hard to help set high standards to eradicate and limit diseases inherent with poultry and indeed most animals on this planet. The CDC does a great job of keeping us as producers and your listeners as consumers informed of potential dangers. We are happy to heed and post warnings that will limit exposure of any potential danger to the public. We still believe that an informed public is smart enough to make the right choices to allow them to raise a flock of chicks in their back yard and enjoy a little piece of rural life. Any scientist, and indeed any high school student, can tell you that this earth is filled with far more strains of bacteria and viruses than people. It is only with an understanding of proper sanitation and common sense that we can successfully cohabitate and protect ourselves and our families while still enjoying the lifestyle we wish to enjoy. Most of the animal population , including poultry, has a potential for harmful bacteria that is a danger to humans. Proper care, sanitation and a healthy respect for posted warnings protects both the animals we enjoy and the people who care for them. The CD website states that EACH YEAR there are 40,000 cases of salmonella reported. Because milder cases are sometimes misdiagnosed and not reported, that number could be more than 30 times higher. Those cases include all food –borne infections as well as animal and medically related. Of that number, there were 60 cases in the year 2014 that had a common denominator of a potential poultry connection that may or may not have been the cause of a salmonella sickness and the possibility of 1800. There were, thankfully, no deaths reported. Most of the cases were from exposures of small children and some with compromised immune systems to chicks. The poultry industry NEVER recommends and indeed posts warnings against allowing small children and those with compromised immune systems to avoid exposure to chicks. They also warn that you must wash your hands after caring for your poultry. Chickens and poultry were NEVER intended to be sold as a household pet and certainly not as a photo op for babies and children no matter how cute and cuddly they seem. Even one case of chicken-related salmonella is always a concern for the industry and is not taken lightly. We remain vigilant in our efforts to keep the public informed while maintaining the ability to provide a quality product to enjoy. I will state that in my fifty plus years in the business we have handled on a daily basis millions of eggs, millions of baby chicks as well as adult birds and neither myself, any member of my family nor any member of our work force, including infants and aging adults, has ever had a salmonella related illness. The recommendation to cull your flocks of all birds sold through particular hatcheries and farm stores and to pursue legal avenues is an alarmist reaction and not the practical answer. Allow me to make a few recommendations: 1. Wash your hands after caring for your birds. Use an old set of clothes and shoes while caring for and cleaning your facility. 2. Keep your area free of rodents and wild birds. They are the biggest potential carriers of all harmful bacteria and viruses. 3. Sanitize your feed pans and waters weekly with a mild bleach/water solution….a couple of drops of chlorine bleach in a gallon of water will keep bacteria from growing. 4. Do not allow other animals to intermingle with your flocks. Even dogs carry diseases and bacteria on their paws. 5. Regularly clean your pen of all litter and fecal matter. The same manure that makes your garden grow also allows grow a healthy crop of bacteria to grow if not properly tended. 6. NEVER allow children to put chicks to their mouth and leave them at a distance to take those photos for the scrapbook. 7. Buy quality feed and any necessary medical treatments from a farm store or poultry supply house that maintains a sanitary environment for both. The gentleman who frequents the program as the “chicken doctor” states that a vaccination program is not feasible for backyard flocks. I would challenge both him and other poultry supply houses to contact the labs that provide our industry with vaccines to protect our flocks. Ask them to provide smaller dose vials of salmonella vaccines that would be available for back yard flocks if so desired. I find it interesting that both the hatchery you name on your program and the farm stores you do not name on your program are listed as sponsors of your radio program. It is to their credit that they continue to support providing information to the public in an effort to control exposure to salmonella bacteria as well as providing quality products consumers can enjoy. As a breeder facility we operate as the anonymous backbone of the industry. I ASSURE you and your listeners that we will continue to strive for excellence in providing quality eggs to the poultry industry for both the chickens you find at your supermarket as well as those baby chicks you find in your farm store. I sincerely hope you provide your listeners with healthy options for raising their backyard flocks. I certainly encourage you to keep the information you provide practical. I certainly know that the American public as a whole is an intelligent community that still wants to make their own decisions and maintain a lifestyle that they choose- including the opportunity to have a backyard flock of chickens to enjoy!

originally posted to chicken whisperer

I agree. Now, how do we organize the petitions to the vaccine manufaturers?

I'm not exactly sure how to do so but from what some people have put out being the "go-to-guy" in poultry and the "chicken doctor" that frequents his show who also owns a large vet supply store I'd say pressuring them to help would be a start. On one of the shows they made a comment about chickens being tested and then consuming rat feces, and then in turn being compromised. My question to them is with our rodent suppression techniques in large scale operations isn't it far more likely for someone in backyard flocks to have a more likely possibility of that happening. If I were a backyard producer I feel I would much rather know what I was dealing with as opposed to having it and not knowing.
I'll give an example, if your wife/husband had to have an immediate blood transfusion and there was the possibility of that blood containing HIV would u rather know and protect yourself accordingly or not know and possibly be contaminated yourself? I mean the professional doctors wouldn't tell u to take the infected person if known to have it, out back and put them down

I had my checked out by my local Vet. to make sure they was ALL OK..
And he did some blood work and other things. even toke him some Dropping's.
And called me 2-days later and said ALL was WELL.