About to cull and some have got sniffles. Meat still safe, or skip straight to antibiotics and withdrawal period?

[SnackMeat]

Maybe a month or so ago I had some sick birds so the whole flock got Tylosan.

Last week I had two isolated for coughing and sneezing but now I have some that were to be culled this week sneezing. All eating and drinking well, running around.

I have delayed starting antibiotics because I was set to cull. Today is the deadline I set for myself to cull or to get everyone on antibiotics (including the two isolated ones, not like that helped but oh well

I have read that so long as a meat bird isn't crazy ill and you're very thorough about removing lung material, that a respiratory infection shouldn't affect the meat.

But I wanted to ask one last time before either the five I had earmarked for today get culled (only 2 have occasional sneezes, but I assume everyone has it) or skip that and do antibiotics and withdrawal time period.

Any help appreciated.

 

[DemeterAD9]

Just cull them, it won’t effect the meat one bit so long as these birds have been healthy and happy enough to stay on feed and not lose any weight. There will always be bacteria and whatnot on raw chicken, just make sure it is cooked thoroughly.

I work at a dairy farm and sometimes certain cows just won’t recover from this or that so we ship them off to be processed. That meat doesn’t get throw out just because the cow was unwell. Or course we wait for the withdrawal period to be cleared if we used meds but other than that we’ve sent cows with all sorts of ailments that we just couldn’t fix.

 

[SnackMeat]

Thanks. They're definitely still their normal selves. Just with occasional sniffles in one or two. Appreciate the help