Avian Flu hits McMurray Hatchery

[BigECart]

Does anyone have a list of the breeds affected at McMurray?

Not yet. I looked at the breeds I ordered and 4 of the 6 breeds were completely sold out, even the roos. I am guessing those breeds were affected.

 

[Jforestquail]

I received an email from them that the cuckoo murans I ordered and blue chochins would not be sent because of HPAI.

 

[Tervuren]

Oh no this awful, I know hatcheries get a lot of flack on quality, but McMurray does try to focus on conservation breeding. It sounds like their Redcap flock was affected based on Tom talking about a breed with very low population in the US. I’m glad that they were able to keep hatching eggs to maintain genetic diversity. Hope they’re able to get through this ok.

 

[chickens802]

I have a small business selling young chickens and other fowl and about half of my supply comes for Mcmurray and has already been pre ordered by my customers. This is just so devastating for me though I can't even imagine how bad it is for them. Most of their website is completely sold out and I waited on their website chat yesterday all afternoon, at one point I was the 900th person in line. Of my order all of the Polish Buff/Silver/Gold/WCB, all of the Cochin's Partridge/Black/Blue, a Buff Minorca, Buttercups, Crevecoeurs, Speckled Sussex, and Salmon Faverolles had to be removed. My order is set to ship of 4/11 and they had no other breeds at all in any gender available for that date. Now I have to start sending out notices to my customers.

 

[LavenderDaFlerf]

Half an hour ago, Tom from McMurray released an announcement.

 

[Perris]

Oh no this awful, I know hatcheries get a lot of flack on quality, but McMurray does try to focus on conservation breeding. It sounds like their Redcap flock was affected based on Tom talking about a breed with very low population in the US. I’m glad that they were able to keep hatching eggs to maintain genetic diversity. Hope they’re able to get through this ok.

here birds on the official rare breeds list can be spared preventative culling in order to save their genetics; does that not happen in the USA?

 

[AGeese]

Take the list of reported cases with a grain of salt. Because that's just what it is - a list of reported cases, cases that somebody saw, identified and reported. There could be wild birds dying near you but nobody knows about it because they are in the woods somewhere out of sight, or because a predator ate them before someone found them, etc. etc. There's no way to really know where exactly the virus is right now, except for the very obvious cases where somebody happened to find a dead wild bird and report it.

Looks like I'm center-right of the apocalypse.

 

[Ilovemychicks08]

The county over from me in Wisconsin has avian influenza. Its so sad.

 

[cluckmecoop7]

Wow....

 

[Tervuren]

here birds on the official rare breeds list can be spared preventative culling in order to save their genetics; does that not happen in the USA?

I don’t think so? But don’t quote me on that. Just based off what I’ve read about people who have had their birds culled, it appears the USDA doesn’t have exceptions for rare breeds.

It would be really sad if McMurray lost their Redcaps. They’ve had that line for 100 years, but started having issues with hatch ability a while back. On a recent podcast interview Tom said they’re looking to import from the UK to outcross with their birds.