Bird Flu In Washington- Info and discussion thread

[LiaQuest]

Hi,

I haven’t been over to introduce myself yet but I’m so stressed I wanted to ask this..

My birds have been under cover all summer. They have no access to any waterfowl. We brought them right up next to the house and created a big covered run area with netting and tarps using our upper deck.

This new Kitsap surveillance area does include us barely, we are right on the very edge. Dispute reading the faq I’m confused. What next? Anyone have any experience with this? Do they come to the house? What should I do?

Thankfully everyone is healthy so far.

Thank you,
Lia

 

[NanaK]

Hi Lia
Having your birds under cover is good. Some people also have dedicated coop/run shoes they do not wear any where else. The virus is know to be carried on shoes, trucks, equipment and such.

I am on the east coast and although earlier in the year there were cases in my area I was not in the surv zone. I cannot advise about that but I will tag a few who live in WA state and maybe they know more.
@Weeg @Lemon-Drop Can you help @LiaQuest

I wish you and your flock the best!

 

[Hinotori]

Hi,

I haven’t been over to introduce myself yet but I’m so stressed I wanted to ask this..

My birds have been under cover all summer. They have no access to any waterfowl. We brought them right up next to the house and created a big covered run area with netting and tarps using our upper deck.

This new Kitsap surveillance area does include us barely, we are right on the very edge. Dispute reading the faq I’m confused. What next? Anyone have any experience with this? Do they come to the house? What should I do?

Thankfully everyone is healthy so far.

Thank you,
Lia

Just keep your birds as you have been. I was in a surveillance zone during one of the Pierce County cases. They don't check up on individuals.

We've been fine here. Probably only because the big pond is covered with lilies during warm weather so waterfowl aren't currently an issue for me. After frost then we will have issues. I have my dogs trained to chase off geese anyway, but I keep my birds penned.

It's just a bad year with the bird flu

 

[LiaQuest]

Thank you @NanaK and @Hinotori. I appreciate it so much. I’ve been beside myself with worry. My girls mean the world to me.

I haven’t known what on earth to expect and nothing I read was telling me. I hope we have been cautious enough. We do have coop shoes although over the three weeks without a case we became more lax.

Then I worried that they’d be unhappy with us for moving them up to the house too. I just want to keep them safe but I’m so Not good at having no idea of the process.

 

[NanaK]

Thank you @NanaK and @Hinotori. I appreciate it so much. I’ve been beside myself with worry. My girls mean the world to me.

I haven’t known what on earth to expect and nothing I read was telling me. I hope we have been cautious enough. We do have coop shoes although over the three weeks without a case we became more lax.

Then I worried that they’d be unhappy with us for moving them up to the house too. I just want to keep them safe but I’m so Not good at having no idea of the process.

It has spread pretty much around the world now. Not looking forward to fall migrations. Can't worry ourselves to death either. Enjoy your birds and just do the best you can. That's all anyone can do.

Also I forgot to tell you You'll find lots of helpful people here.

 

[Hinotori]

This just depresses me. Migration is coming soon.

 

[APK]

Bird flu is more transmissive in very tight indoor conditions. If they are outdoors my feeling is that you will have less mortality as long as any sick ones are isolated and removed from the common area. More than worrying about keeping song birds out, or covering everything up, you should try and reduce the flock density by increasing the foraging space if possible. The biggest reason for devastating effects of bird flu is that there is a massive viral load in tight conditions, even a healthy animal has no chance. But why then does the song bird even fly over to get the flock sick, shouldn't it drop dead too? The song bird gets a much lower viral load and is away from other birds, which gives it a chance to develop immunity.

 

[Hinotori]

The biggest issue is contact with wild waterfowl. All Washington cases have had contact with them according to the State. Keeping birds penned up is still the best defense.

Songbirds have been shown to be very low risk for transmission because they don't eat dead waterfowl, which is how the hawks have picked it up as well as the ravens. Songbirds also aren't very susceptible it it.

They claimed airborne transmission through the vents at some of the eastern egg farms that had outbreaks early on. I haven't seen the follow-up on that.

We had ducks fly over this evening. Some of the waterlilies are dying off in the center of the pond. I do not let the girls free range and never let them get to the pond. It's 40 some acres of pond and the whole thing can be considered contaminated. I don't let the dogs over there either so they can't track anything back.

The puppy will not let the large fowl out of their pen. If they do get out, he will track every one of them down and force them back in. Herding instinct is a little strong on him. They rushed me the other day when I was carrying feed bags into the pen. They didn't get 5 minutes and only got as far as the garden and silkie pens before he had them rushing back.

 

[Becks Chicks]

This just depresses me. Migration is coming soon.


View attachment 3237450

Thank you for posting the list. I didn’t realize avian flu was just detected in my county. We have so many wild birds around. Yesterday, we probably had 200 geese on our beachfront and we’ve started to see the ducks come in as well. We don’t free range our chickens but I still worry I might track something into the coop.

 

[Hinotori]

Thank you for posting the list. I didn’t realize avian flu was just detected in my county. We have so many wild birds around. Yesterday, we probably had 200 geese on our beachfront and we’ve started to see the ducks come in as well. We don’t free range our chickens but I still worry I might track something into the coop.

Here's the full thing for domestic flocks in Washington. The Dept Ag doesn't follow wild birds.