Brother told he has to get rid of his chickens for fear of mycoplasma that will kill the neighbors t

[Twiddle2]

Just wanted to see if anyone here knows about a disease that chickens carry and can spread to turkeys and kill entire flocks of turkeys.
Here's the story. My brother lives out in the country on a farm and they free range their chickens. About a mile from them is a large turkey farm. The man who owns this turkey farm asked my brother to get rid of his chickens for fear of them spreading a mycoplasma or something like that to his flock of turkeys and wiping out his flock.
This has never been a concern until now. Needless to say they don't want to get rid of their chickens but they would not want to be responsible for this man loosing all his turkeys due to a disease from the chickens. He said that sparrows can carry the organism and spread it to his place.
Is there something that can be done to prevent what ever disease that he is speaking of? Is this really a concern?
Any info soon would be greatly appreciated. My nephew is heartbroken.

 

[angel8035]

Just wanted to see if anyone here knows about a disease that chickens carry and can spread to turkeys and kill entire flocks of turkeys.
Here's the story. My brother lives out in the country on a farm and they free range their chickens. About a mile from them is a large turkey farm. The man who owns this turkey farm asked my brother to get rid of his chickens for fear of them spreading a mycoplasma or something like that to his flock of turkeys and wiping out his flock.
This has never been a concern until now. Needless to say they don't want to get rid of their chickens but they would not want to be responsible for this man loosing all his turkeys due to a disease from the chickens. He said that sparrows can carry the organism and spread it to his place.
Is there something that can be done to prevent what ever disease that he is speaking of? Is this really a concern?
Any info soon would be greatly appreciated. My nephew is heartbroken.

There is not really a good way to prevent it. If your brother's birds don't show respiratory symptoms, then there is no need to worry. Good biosecurity would say to not visit his farm and have him not visit yours. Since wild birds can spread mycoplasma, getting rid of your birds will not necessarily keep his birds free of it. I think it is unfair of him to ask your brother to get rid of his birds. JMO.

 

[Eggcessive]

Mycoplasma is just about everywhere, and so are wild birds, so I doubt if this farmer has any ground to stand on. Does he own one of the big megafarms for raising commercial turkeys, or does he just raise turkeys? Apparently it is true that commercial chicken farms can be infected by smaller backyard farms, where wild birds fly back and forth. It is thought that most backyard farms may have a variety of infectious diseases due to lack biosecurity measures. I'm not sure the farmer has any legal recourse to make someone give up there chickens. Maybe if the farmer would come by to check out the health of the flock, he might change his mind. I have heard that employees of huge chicken farms are not allowed to have their own backyard flocks due to chances of carrying in disease on their tires, shoe and clothes. Mycoplasma stays on those things including hair for up to 3 days.

 

[Twiddle2]

This is a commercial turkey farm. I told my brother and his wife to do some research on their own and not take the other farmers word as the law just yet.
Thanks for the quick replies so far.

This sight is awesome!!