Arizona Chickens

[wolfwalker]

There's no danger to people, since they properly cook their food before eating, yet they cull the birds?! More fear mongering, I guess we all should stock up. At least they're admitting that wild birds are spreading it, and not the backyard flocks.

Hopefully you'll have some hatch!

Certain diseases which are highly infectious are an automatic de-populating event to keep the disease contained. The H5N1 outbreak so far is in Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia and Indiana with results pending in Florida.

H5N1 while not capable of Zoonosis (passage to other species) rapidly spreads and kills within hours of contagion.

The last thing to remember, when a farm or backyard with a bio-security plan filed with the state if infected are reimbursed full value for the birds de-populated (killed).

Any hatcheries within the affected states that are NPIP must test all the flock monthly if they wish to ship chicks or eggs.

So this is a big thing.

 

[springvalley123]

Certain diseases which are highly infectious are an automatic de-populating event to keep the disease contained. The H5N1 outbreak so far is in Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia and Indiana with results pending in Florida.

H5N1 while not capable of Zoonosis (passage to other species) rapidly spreads and kills within hours of contagion.

The last thing to remember, when a farm or backyard with a bio-security plan filed with the state if infected are reimbursed full value for the birds de-populated (killed).

Any hatcheries within the affected states that are NPIP must test all the flock monthly if they wish to ship chicks or eggs.

So this is a big thing.

Good to hear from you @wolfwalker . If it is spread by wild birds, why do they kill the contained poultry flocks? I understand highly contagioius, just don't see how it would spread if these facilities practiced biosecurity.

 

[Coffee N Chickens]

Maybe, that is if they have enough hen's to lay those fertile egg's that will hatch out all of the chick's that will be in demand.

I have a cockerel available here. He'd like a home!

 

[wolfwalker]

Good to hear from you @wolfwalker . If it is spread by wild birds, why do they kill the contained poultry flocks? I understand highly contagioius, just don't see how it would spread if these facilities practiced biosecurity.

it is most likely entering the flocks via people, on shoes or clothes. Once in a flock, it is 99% lethal to the whole flock.

Lets take the disease vector one step further.

You have a whole flock infected and dyeing. Every person and piece of equipment moving the infected birds are now exposed and carriers. Every person's vehicle and everything they touch and remove from the farm, like keys, pens, sunglasses, paper and hats, are now infected (these are things most people forget to disinfect and touch). The vehicle and tires are now infected and spread the infection as they leave the property.

3 miles down the road, they pass someone walking to their mailbox and on the return trip step onto a piece of fallen debris from the vehicle. They are now infected and carry it to the feed store on their shoes. everyone at the store now is infected if they step in the same spot as the person who carried the infection into the store. they now carry it back to their farm.

I was part of the hospitals infectious disease response team, so I do know a thing or two .

So the USDA team will de-populate a farm and bring in portable furnaces to incinerate the flock on the spot. They will go inside the barns in protective gear through an airlock between the barn and the door to the furnace and place all the birds in the incinerators. Once they enter the airlock again their gear will be burned and they will enter a shower area and clean up and dress in clean clothes. once they leave the property they will go through another shower/cleaning cycle before they can leave for the day.

The bedding will be doused in a chlorine solution that is at least 50% strength. For reference household bleach is 10% chlorine solution. After it is fully saturated it will be loaded into sealed connex's and taken to a larger incinerator to be burned.

All equipment will be submerged in the chlorine solution, anything that can not be cleaned will be removed and taken to the incinerator with the bedding.

Overkill? Maybe, but take the above scenario and how quickly a disease can be spread by not going to the extreme. Now lets take it to a paranoid level but one that is within the realm of possibilities. The feed store that the infection was carried into, happened to be visited by a worker from a major hatchery like McMurry and the infection was carried back to their farm and infects their flock. That unlikely but possible event would be hard to recover from. Or how about the person works for the hatchery that supplies birds to a hundred farms and hatches out half a million chicks a day. Now those chicks get infected and the disease spreads to hundreds of farms over multiple states.

Those scenarios is why the USDA will not leave the disposal of a depopulated farm to the owners because they can and do cut corners.

And this is long enough as it is LOL

 

[BlueBaby]

it is most likely entering the flocks via people, on shoes or clothes. Once in a flock, it is 99% lethal to the whole flock.

Lets take the disease vector one step further.

You have a whole flock infected and dyeing. Every person and piece of equipment moving the infected birds are now exposed and carriers. Every person's vehicle and everything they touch and remove from the farm, like keys, pens, sunglasses, paper and hats, are now infected (these are things most people forget to disinfect and touch). The vehicle and tires are now infected and spread the infection as they leave the property.

3 miles down the road, they pass someone walking to their mailbox and on the return trip step onto a piece of fallen debris from the vehicle. They are now infected and carry it to the feed store on their shoes. everyone at the store now is infected if they step in the same spot as the person who carried the infection into the store. they now carry it back to their farm.

I was part of the hospitals infectious disease response team, so I do know a thing or two .

So the USDA team will de-populate a farm and bring in portable furnaces to incinerate the flock on the spot. They will go inside the barns in protective gear through an airlock between the barn and the door to the furnace and place all the birds in the incinerators. Once they enter the airlock again their gear will be burned and they will enter a shower area and clean up and dress in clean clothes. once they leave the property they will go through another shower/cleaning cycle before they can leave for the day.

The bedding will be doused in a chlorine solution that is at least 50% strength. For reference household bleach is 10% chlorine solution. After it is fully saturated it will be loaded into sealed connex's and taken to a larger incinerator to be burned.

All equipment will be submerged in the chlorine solution, anything that can not be cleaned will be removed and taken to the incinerator with the bedding.

Overkill? Maybe, but take the above scenario and how quickly a disease can be spread by not going to the extreme. Now lets take it to a paranoid level but one that is within the realm of possibilities. The feed store that the infection was carried into, happened to be visited by a worker from a major hatchery like McMurry and the infection was carried back to their farm and infects their flock. That unlikely but possible event would be hard to recover from. Or how about the person works for the hatchery that supplies birds to a hundred farms and hatches out half a million chicks a day. Now those chicks get infected and the disease spreads to hundreds of farms over multiple states.

Those scenarios is why the USDA will not leave the disposal of a depopulated farm to the owners because they can and do cut corners.

And this is long enough as it is LOL

We all go to feed store's to pick up our feed. We also go to store's and other places, that someone else who might be carrying the infection, so the best thing that we can do is to secure our flock's, and to practice our own biosecurity.

 

[springvalley123]

We all go to feed store's to pick up our feed. We also go to store's and other places, that someone else who might be carrying the infection, so the best thing that we can do is to secure our flock's, and to practice our own biosecurity.

I have a pair of shoes that I only wear in the back yard (where the chickens are). I don't wear other shoes, including the shoes I wear to the feed store, into the back yard. I don't have bleach baths though.

 

[BlueBaby]

I have a pair of shoes that I only wear in the back yard (where the chickens are). I don't wear other shoes, including the shoes I wear to the feed store, into the back yard. I don't have bleach baths though.

Good practice with the shoes. As far as the bleach goes though, @wolfwalker mentioned the 50% chlorine bleach and not the household 10%.

 

[wolfwalker]

Good practice with the shoes. As far as the bleach goes though, @wolfwalker mentioned the 50% chlorine bleach and not the household 10%.

True, but that is for confirmed infection you are trying to sterilize everything. You can do a foot bath with household bleach 1 cup to a gallon of water if you include a scrub brush to get any stuck bits out. Way cheaper than the foot bath disinfectants they sell.

 

[Coffee N Chickens]

True, but that is for confirmed infection you are trying to sterilize everything. You can do a foot bath with household bleach 1 cup to a gallon of water if you include a scrub brush to get any stuck bits out. Way cheaper than the foot bath disinfectants they sell.

It looks like the rabbit infection might still be around. On Sunday, I found a rabbit lying dead about 3 feet from the side of the house, and the dogs have no access to that area.

All that bleach and chicken destruction might not even stop the spread, since wild birds can still spread it.

 

[BlueBaby]

My latest 7 egg Bielefelder hatch is now done. Those 2 that tried to hatch on the underside of the egg died. Both would have been pullet's, and I must not have caught it in time before they drowned. Then I had 4 more girl's and a boy that did hatch live. 3 of the 4 pullet's have been moved down into the brooder. A boy and girl weren't ready to move down into the brooder yet.