UK Law change - all bird keepers must register their birds with DEFRA

[AGeese]

Please read this; it's from 2022 when the disease was still an issue.
https://www.theguardian.com/environ...lling-of-140m-farmed-birds-since-last-october

There are a lot of people involved at the top who think culling is not a good way to deal with such diseases. Those who are worried should try to find some figures for exactly how many backyard birds have been culled by officials in this latest H5N1 outbreak and what sort of percentage of all keepers they represent. Is this a real threat or a vanishingly unlikely one?

It is, btw, essentially over now. The whole UK has just moved to low risk status. Wild and domestic birds are acquiring immunity to it, as normal.

I love how the truth is typically reported after the fact. Fear sells, just exchange the number culled with actual fatalities due to the virus or comorbidity/infection and you have a recipe for fear.

A virus needs a living host to spread, so generally speaking it's those with weak or compromised immune systems at risk. The industry isn't selecting for strong immunity by culling, they're ensuring weak chickens with short life spans that can mature quick, be high producers, and die before they burn out.

There is no incentive for large commercial operations to test every bird, and isolate etc. It's the scorched earth policy instead totally unsustainable, and disturbing.

Heritage homestead birds for life!

 

[NatJ]

The industry isn't selecting for strong immunity by culling, they're ensuring weak chickens with short life spans that can mature quick, be high producers, and die before they burn out.

There is no incentive for large commercial operations to test every bird, and isolate etc. It's the scorched earth policy instead totally unsustainable, and disturbing.

For chickens that will never reproduce anyway, it probably does make more sense to kill them all and stop the spread. That would apply to most commercial layers, and all commercial meat birds that are butchered young. There is no point in selecting the ones that survive, unless you actually breed from those survivors.

Selectively breeding for immunity in the commercial birds would need to happen in the parent stock breeding flocks, not the big production facilities.

Heritage homestead birds for life!

For anyone who is breeding their chickens, I agree that selecting for resistance could be a good strategy.

 

[AGeese]

For chickens that will never reproduce anyway, it probably does make more sense to kill them all and stop the spread. That would apply to most commercial layers, and all commercial meat birds that are butchered young. There is no point in selecting the ones that survive, unless you actually breed from those survivors.

Selectively breeding for immunity in the commercial birds would need to happen in the parent stock breeding flocks, not the big production facilities.



For anyone who is breeding their chickens, I agree that selecting for resistance could be a good strategy.

For sure this is the system in place that supports the convenience and affordability for the modern lifestyle (don't buy into that feed-the-world-mantra.)

 

[Mid Wales chicken keeper]

Although it's a different country and all that... over here there has been a lot of culling of backyard flocks, so it might serve as an example of what could happen, and why people might be right to worry.

Here, when a flock or commercial outfit tests positive, ALL domestic Fowl within a certain distance are culled. The distance depends on the state / county. At least one was posted as 2 miles.
That's someone knocking on your door "The guy up the road tested positive so we're going to cull your flock."
No tests or symptoms needed.
It's not an annual inspection which is such a big deal, but what they do when there's an outbreak nearby. It's whether you as a flock owner have any right to get testing done before they are culled. And don't expect compensation for your losses.

There was a horrible story on here last spring from a lady whose flock did have some sick birds, and they came out to cull, the workers didn't know a lot about killing chickens humanely. She had to catch all her birds and hand them over one by one to be killed inside a trash can. Of course in her case it was necessary, but there were some mistakes and she was very traumatized.

Over here, as it stands, they only know about backyard flocks from the NPIP program and certain jurisdictions requiring permits. But once they roll personnel to deal with an outbreak they're going to check the records and see who has chickens or other fowl. That's what a database is for. And why I would not sign up for one here.

Sorry for such a late reply, you are absolutely right, the only reason for such a database is the slaughter of domestic birds, it's not enough to go after the farmers self sufficiency is being targeted