Avian Bird Flu - Preventatives?

[TJAnonymous]

I was just reading an article this morning that said avian flu has now spread to 12 states! Dept of Ag is looking at culling 2.75 million birds, both backyard flocks and commercial flocks. Naturally I am concerned....

Other than biosecurity, is anyone doing anything else to protect their flocks? I don't go visiting other places where people have chickens and no one else comes to my farm, but I do have TONS of wild birds around all the time so there's always an avenue of spread that I can't control.

What about preventatives? Would Ivermectin help? Anything else?

 

[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?

 

[MysteryChicken]

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


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

Have a link to that? Plus according to the news, it has no effect on Sars/Covid19. It's not effective.



@Eggcessive

@Wyorp Rock

@azygous

@casportpony


This isn't a subject I'm strong in, since it's medication related, can you help? You guys are more knowledgeable.

 

[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.

 

[azygous]

https://www.alltech.com/blog/how-prevent-avian-influenza-poultry Goes over the common sense methods to keep your flock safe.

There are sometimes many different strains of a virus, and those are often going through mutations, changing so rapidly that science can't nail down a strain long enough to come up with an antiviral that will be effective.

Ivermectin had proven effective on some viruses that have not rapidly mutated into drastically varied strains, but bird flu isn't one of these cooperative viruses. There are no studies that show it's effective as a treatment or a preventative for bird flu.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I'm sure there's quite a bit of info covered in this ongoing thread about AI, you may want to read through the links that folks have posted.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/avian-influenza-found-in-south-carolina.1507893/

 

[TJAnonymous]

Ivermectin had proven effective on some viruses that have not rapidly mutated into drastically varied strains, but bird flu isn't one of these cooperative viruses. There are no studies that show it's effective as a treatment or a preventative for bird flu.

Do you know if it has even been tested against Avian Influenza?

As I mentioned above, I realize that the viruses it has shown effective against are NOT AI but I'm betting it has never been tested (in chickens specifically). That could mean it COULD be effective and just hasn't been tested. Or maybe it's not at all, such as with Zika (in mice).

I'm just saying...aren't 2.75 million birds (and counting) worth giving it a try?

Several studies reported antiviral effects of ivermectin on RNA viruses such as Zika, dengue, yellow fever, West Nile, Hendra, Newcastle, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, chikungunya, Semliki Forest, Sindbis, Avian influenza A, Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome, Human immunodeficiency virus type 1, and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.

Source - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7290143/

 

[azygous]

You have a point. I often have the notion myself of just throwing a med at a problem just to see what would happen with my one chicken, my very own clinical trial if you will. I did this a couple years ago when I thought some pullets had Marek's and I wanted to see if the anti-viral herpes med acyclovir would work against it.

As for whether millions of birds are "worth it", probably not in our cynical economic system where it's cheaper and easier to simply kill all infected and suspected infected birds and start all over. The industry sets the demand and the pharmaceutical industry then decides if it's cost/profit effective enough to start doing drug trials. Bird flu has been around since 1997 when it was discovered in both birds and humans. Seems we'd have a med for it by now if any of the powers-that-be cared to find it.

 

[azygous]

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