HEADS UP AVIAN INFLUENZA ALERT

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Biosecurity, STRICT biosecurity. Keep all visitors out of the hen house, family,friends..... EVERYBODY since you do not know where their shoes have been. Disinfect your shoes EVERYTIME you go in the hen house. Don't wear the shoes you wear in the hen house any where but in the hen house.

Stay away from chicken auctions, chicken fairs, chicken swaps.

And pray.
 
aac1019 said:
Yes, avian influenza has been confirmed in two counties in Iowa: Osceola and Buena Vista. Both were commercial flocks. You can use this interactive avian influenza map to track cases confirmed by USDA in North America and filter by operation type: http://www.wattagnet.com/Avian_influenza_outbreak_map.html.
Click to expand...

Actually it has been confirmed in 3 counties in Iowa. Osceola, Buena Vista, and Sac. All are in the NW corner of the state.
 
teanelly said:
Why is it believed that commercial poultry farms have higher biosecurity than smaller chicken keepers... I'd think it would be the other way around. Surely it's easier for me with 13 chickens to keep a better/safer biosecure environment, right?
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They don't allow visitors. Trucks delivering feed, in many of the farms are washed down prior to entering the grounds, especially tires. As someone else said, the birds are confined to housing with sophisticated ventilation systems. Workers on those farms have outdoor footwear and indoor footwear. Black for outside work, white for indoor work. It's easy for workers to police each other in that way. These barns are huge with changing stations.
We (myself included), don't go to those measures but I'm trying to tighten up.

enola said:
Biosecurity, STRICT biosecurity. Keep all visitors out of the hen house, family,friends..... EVERYBODY since you do not know where their shoes have been. Disinfect your shoes EVERYTIME you go in the hen house. Don't wear the shoes you wear in the hen house any where but in the hen house.

Stay away from chicken auctions, chicken fairs, chicken swaps.

And pray.
Click to expand...
I agree but in my case it's not that simple. When I was growing up, we had a big henhouse for 100+ hens. Now, I have 8 small housing units scattered across the property with pens interspersed with vegetable beds and fruit production. I rarely enter the housing units unless to muck them out but it's not feasible to go from one pen to another changing shoes literally 100 times a day.

enola said:
All of my chicken friends at work (in SC) are following the threads about AI on this site. We are as prepared as we think we can be....
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So far it hasn't been identified in the Atlantic flyway but likely will this fall when the birds that intermingle with the other flyway birds in the Arctic return south.
 
What about disinfecting vehicles? We are supposed to go up to Lake Erie next month for a day or so. We are taking a rental car and will change clothes and shoes before we set foot on our property again, but I wonder if we should wash the car and disinfect the tires, since we will be in an area where birds are migrating, and we have to bring the car on to our property when we arrive home? There has not been any flu cases documented where we are going.
 
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