Avian Bird Flu - Preventatives?

[azygous]

I keep a prescription of Tamiflu on hand just in case I get whatever flavor flu is going around. I wouldn't hesitate to use it on a chicken in my flock that might have avian flu.

However, the problem with that plan is three-fold. First, I would need to have a way of verifying they have avian flu. Then I would need to treat soon after onset of symptoms for it to have any chance of curing my chicken. Lastly, the process of obtaining enough Tamiflu to treat a flock of chickens might take longer to accomplish than the narrow window of efficacy allows. This latter is why I keep a prescription on hand for myself. No way would I be able to convince my doc to write a prescription for each chicken in my flock.

Covered runs are the best prevention for these avian flu viruses, and that's cost effective since a covered run is also the best preventative against losing your flock to predators.

 

[DramaBrahmaMama]

I was reading one article that said to make sure that if you have a run, it has a solid covering, and the fence surrounding your run was covered to prevent wild birds from entering to get to the feed. So... poultry netting it is! Pain in the ars, but totally worth it to protect your flock. We have all invested way too much time, energy and love into these birds to have them simply wiped out. It comes down to this, we do what we can... ALL that we can, and we pray it works. Right now, my county in Iowa is surrounded by it. The hatchery where I got my chicks is surrounded also. And, unfortunately, my DIL's family co-ops with the place that just went positive 2 days ago. They also have a large commercial turkey farm in Buena Vista County. They must test daily and maintain strict biosecurity. This is a nightmare... but, it happens every few years. My main concern is protecting my flock and making sure they are all healthy and safeguarded. I'm trying not to consider how these things will affect an already stressed food chain and inflation. It will drive me crazy. The wild birds that are so accustomed to me feeding them are quite angry with me right now. But unfortunately, they are all public enemy #1 till this is over....

 

[MysteryChicken]

There are no preventatives, only putting your birds on lockdown, & stop feeding wild birds.

Ivermectin is a Lice/Mite killer, & dewormer. It doesn't treat viruses, or bacterias.


We have tons of wild birds in our area too.

 

[TJAnonymous]

There are no preventatives, only putting your birds on lockdown, & stop feeding wild birds.

Ivermectin is a Lice/Mite killer, & dewormer. It doesn't treat viruses, or bacterias.


We have tons of wild birds in our area too.

That's actually not true about Ivermectin. It has shown protection against many viruses - West Nile, SARS-CoV-2, and others:

Ivermectin treatment was shown to increase survival in mice infected with the pseudorabies virus (PRV) [2] and reduced titers of porcine circovirus 2 (PCV2) in the tissues and sera of infected piglets [3]. In addition, Xu et al. reported the antiviral efficacy of ivermectin in dengue virus-infected Aedes albopictus mosquitoes [4]. Ivermectin was also identified as a promising agent against the alphaviruses chikungunya, Semliki Forest and Sindbis virus, as well as yellow fever, a flavivirus [5]. Moreover, a new study indicated that ivermectin presents strong antiviral activity against the West Nile virus, also a flavivirus, at low (μM) concentrations [6]. This drug has further been demonstrated to exert antiviral activity against Zika virus (ZIKV) in in vitro screening assays [7], but failed to offer protection in ZIKV-infected mice [8].

Naturally, these are all different viruses and not necessarily AI.... But it shows promise, right? Better than doing nothing?

 

[Eggcessive]

I don’t know of any preventative except to keep your chickens separated from wild birds who can spread the virus from migrating waterfowl.

 

[TJAnonymous]

To clarify, the flu drugs oseltamivir (Tamiflu), peramivir (Rapivab), or zanamivir (Relenza) can be used to treat avian flu in humans.

Are any of those as cheap as Ivermectin? My daughter came down with Type A Influenza this past week. Instead of prescribing Tamiflu, they prescribed a "new" medication called Xofluza. Guess how much it costs? $100!

My point is that if the treatment is more expensive than the cost to cull the birds, then it's not really a viable option. Ivermectin is cheap. But the question is if it is effective AND how could it be delivered to the birds....?

 

[TJAnonymous]

Thanks for starting this thread- very helpful info. I am a first time chicken owner of four baby ISA browns. They haven't left my guest bedroom since I got them. They are about 2.5 week now and I was thinking about moving them to an outside coop in a few weeks. Alternatively, we have a well ventilated garage that they can hide out in. Would you suggest keeping them in our garage rather than having them in our backyard? We live in Houston btw.

I think eventually you are going to want them outside...both for your health and theirs. Being in the south, your weather is similar to mine. Chicken poo gets very stinky in the southern heat and tends to draw a lot of flies.... You don't want that in your garage, trust me!

I think you will be fine as long as you have a covered run that wild birds can't enter or poop from above and you practice good biosecurity. There's quite a few posts on both of those topics...and I'm sure others will chime in here.

BTW, welcome to BYC!

 

[TJAnonymous]

I agree, your thought process is very valid medically, and there are a number of medical articles that point to its possible use in humans infected with avian influenza. It looks like because it has jumped to humans in isolated cases, they are being forced into killing all exposed birds due to the mortality rate in humans. Depending on the article, the humans that got it had 35%-80% mortality. Remember that this is worldwide so many of the treating countries were not even close to real medical standards. So, though the Dept of Ag is not making big deal about the potential jump to humans, it looks like the real reason they are killing the birds, though they want to stop the spread in birds, is to prevent the virus from mutating to one that can easily be spread to humans, or heaven forbid, between humans. There are some articles says it has jumped to pigs in some cases. I seem to remember when it does this, it's much more likely to then be able to mutate and jump to humans. Of course to protect the food chain and mass starvation in many countries they want to prevent this jump too.

This article discusses the wide variety of viruses Ivermectin has been effective against. The first part of Table 1 shows all the viruses: https://mdpi-res.com/d_attachment/cells/cells-09-02100/article_deploy/cells-09-02100-v2.pdf

My contact said that AI has a 95% mortality rate in birds. Once they get it, they are almost certainly done for....

All the more reason why the industry would support a treatment if it was cost effective.

 

[TJAnonymous]

I keep a prescription of Tamiflu on hand just in case I get whatever flavor flu is going around. I wouldn't hesitate to use it on a chicken in my flock that might have avian flu.

However, the problem with that plan is three-fold. First, I would need to have a way of verifying they have avian flu. Then I would need to treat soon after onset of symptoms for it to have any chance of curing my chicken. Lastly, the process of obtaining enough Tamiflu to treat a flock of chickens might take longer to accomplish than the narrow window of efficacy allows. This latter is why I keep a prescription on hand for myself. No way would I be able to convince my doc to write a prescription for each chicken in my flock.

Covered runs are the best prevention for these avian flu viruses, and that's cost effective since a covered run is also the best preventative against losing your flock to predators.

Yes, you are absolutely right... When I started this thread, I was wondering whether Pour-on Ivermectin or something else could be used as a preventative or a therapeutic treatment. After talking with people on this thread and at the University, my goal has shifted to finding out if anyone is looking at this as a potential treatment for against future outbreaks.

Here's the rub with the current situation. According to my contact, if any birds test positive, the government will automatically cull every last bird on your farm. There will be no attempt at any kind of treatment...

Keeping any illness secret is probably inconvenient and unethical. First of all, a flock owner probably wouldn't know for sure if their birds have it without testing.... And, even if you did know, if the experiment fails you'll still lose your birds to a terrible death AND potentially propagate the virus through wild birds that could pick it up.

So sadly, the only reasonable preventative is like locking down the flock... But hopefully someone will be willing to look at this option in a controlled lab and determine whether it could really work as a treatment. That research will take years because FDA and USDA need to ensure no treatment residue remains in animals meant for consumption. Lots of implications here...

 

[Sally PB]

I used to feel guilty that I didn't let my chickens out, ever. I wish they could have more space, but they have a nice, safe-as-I-can-make-it run.

As soon as it stops being so dang wet and cold, they'll get some weeds out of the garden too. And I'm going to build them a jungle gym. Or should I call it a play station?