I thought the same thing. I'm glad they didn't steal any of our chickens but really mad that they were selfish enough to risk our flock being exposed to an illness. We are a no cull household (have a bachelor flock + all) so there is no way we would cull these chickens. We have 5 different coops and they are behind our house (which is over a half mile from the road and pretty impossible to see at night), so I don't even know they would have known the coops were there.What the heck is wrong with people? Just going into other peoples coops.
Seems it would make more sense to come up with a vaccine than to decide people can't free range their flocks forevermore.
Problem is that all vaccines can eventually lead to mutation or have to be reformulated often due to such. Example, the human influenza vaccine is based on the previous year’s strains and unless they are the same, they offer no coverage at all for the current ones going around. Some viruses mutate faster than others and we would be vaccinating our birds every year potentially. Considering their comparatively short life span and the fact that they are food animals, that is why many people do not or will not vaccinate them, much less do it annually.It makes me so sad to see AI steadily marching across the Country, and staying in a lot of States. I can't imagine really how the USDA people must feel having to deal with culling these small backyard flocks...people's pets.. over and over and over. Please pray for everyone and i hope they come up with a vaccine....please. I know some don't believe in vaccines, but hopefully someone will think it's necessary to at least try to come up with something. Also, I read somewhere that now AI has been detected in fox kits in two different States....
Try sacrificing a virgin at the nearest volcano........
yes but even after virus has mutated vaccines provide some protection. If they can do it with people they can do it with other animals. And vaccinating even large flocks as chicks would not be a problem. I'm sure hatcheries, aviaries, zoos would find a vaccine for AI useful. Huge poultry farms, probably not...
Too inefficient.
Yes, I would consider locking them up. If you do so, consider keeping the ducks separate. They are little feathered Trojan horses of the flu. If they got the flu from the wild ducks, they may not show symptoms, but could pass the virus through their droppings. The chickens could get sick from (ironically) being locked up in close quarters. Good luck. It's scary.
