destruction and disposal orders HELP

[johnskoi]

LADIES AND GENTLEMAN, We interrupt this thread for a special report : This is a public service announcement. The severe shaking of the earth you just felt was not, we repeat - NOT an earthquake, volcano, sonic boom, alien invasion, or other disaster. It was merely my husband falling over in a deep faint at seeing anything associated with me being referred to as "sweet". We now return you to your regularly scheduled thread, in progress.

lol .... i think he KNOWS how lucky he is

 

[johnskoi]

just a quickie ..

 

[Chickielady]

I'm late to the party, but I just read through this whole amazing thread and am so pleasantly surprised at the outcome. I'm glad your birds are still with you!

I know a lot of folks have said AI isn't in the news enough, but I don't know, I seem to keep hearing it on the radio and seeing it in print and online all over- and it's not even in our part of the country (yet). I've been worried about my little backyard flock all spring. My 8 girls are just pets, and it's been a closed flock for over 2 years, but I am constantly worried about what potential diseases/infections/contaminants I could be bringing home from the feed store, horse barn, etc. I know someone mentioned taking biosecurity precautions up through sterilizing car tires, but that just seems like a virtually impossible standard to me. I have a pair of boots that I only wear in and out of the yard and coop/run, but the chickens free range and people drive cars and walk on our driveway, which the chickens range over. How could we possibly protect them from anyone who drives up to the driveway after being somewhere else? Right now, we've decided that a life without free ranging ever just isn't fair to them, but if (when?) AI shows up here, I guess we'll sadly have to rethink that.

Read more, and note: This is Hampshire , UK, not USA...First time I read this I was a bit worried !

https://theconversation.com/five-things-you-need-to-know-about-bird-flu-37183

 

[Chickielady]

just a quickie ..

John, I think I'd start hiding my best birds...I don't think I could sit & waite, it is so scarey & so sad !
I hope it all works for you !!!

 

[Two Chicksahs]

Did any of you ever get a questionare from the Fed Govt, Dept of Ag in the last few years.....several pages long with all sorts of questions like
How many acres you have in crops, what kind of crops, how much is irrigated, what kind of livestock, and how many
What kind of poultry & how many..and so on.
They sent me one, I tossed it.
Then they sent a card that said it was illegal not to fill it out & return it.
I wrote "I AM NOT A FARM" and sent it in, and so far, they have not arrested me for failing to disclose my every secret.........5$2***4/!!!***excuse my cussing~~~~~~~~

ALOT of WA BYCers recieved the same questionare...and you have to ask yourselfs, How do THEY know who has poultry & who does not ?

I KNOW they know I have poultry, as I am a NPIP participant, and report my every egg sale....

WHY did I join NPIP ??? WHY ?????????????????

Hello there people in chicken land: Here's my somewhat rhetorical question, How does the USDA know who has chickens that are infected and who's aren't? How do they choose which flock coop to visit? They send people who are trained Inspectors who go to farms all over their territory, perhaps all over a given state, based on what kind of list? I personally have 7 chicks that are all under 6 mo's and chickielady was kind enough to give them Mereks shots when they were all 2 wks to aprox. 2 months old.
The Gov't vehicles go from place to place inspecting them based on something or another that they are searching for on their inspection check off list. However I wonder: Do these inspectors steam clean their trucks after they finish each inspection? I think not! They then go to another farm and don't have any idea whether the last place had any of those horrid diseases since more than likely they have to take specimens and send them to an approved lab. Meanwhile, exponentially they are spreading disease via themselves (clothing and footwear) and their vehicles tires. What I'm saying is that perhaps I'm, A.) paranoid or B) it is the inspectors that we should worry about as far as spreading these pathogens and Avian virus' from farm to farm on an exponential rate. Is there any kind of oversight?
You can't redirect Canadian Geese or wild birds and put up a detour sign up in the sky in an attempt to reroute them away from your flock... Okay I'm being silly here for a very sad situation.
Any time you have people coming to your farm to look at your chickens or livestock you are taking a risk (albeit a small one perhaps) but people get complacent and that includes Healthcare workers and USDA inspectors. It's human nature. (IMO). My chickens are fine, growing bigger and are healthy. Many of your flocks in these pages have been recently inspected and passed with flying colors. The sad thing is these mass killings of birds just in case is taking a terrible toll on the Egg and Chicken prices and on our hearts when we loose members of our flocks which for many are like family. Okay I'm done with my rhetoric and or rant. Thank you...

 

[johnskoi]

John, I think I'd start hiding my best birds...I don't think I could sit & waite, it is so scarey & so sad !
I hope it all works for you !!!

if my BIRDS tested positive, i would put them down --- i do not want to pass this little bit of hell onto someone else....big guy or little guy ... although i know i'd hurt more passing it on to the little guy...by now, you all probably figured out i'm kind of a little more sensitive than most (that being said, i KNOW just about EVERYONE else who posted here is as well)... this is day 11... i know the 'powers that be' granted me a leniency -- and a BIG one at that -- if i KNEW my birds were clean, i'd move them in a heartbeat ... but i'm not the one in the lab which ULTIMATELY will be the final word.... if it comes back positive and my ALL of my birds still appear healthy on july 4th, i will request another lab to verify (something i SHOULD be looking into now)...otoh (randy travis again

) if they start appearing sick or dying, i WILL notify the proper people IMMEDIATELY....starting to drift with my thoughts and while i MORE than appreciate the sentiment, i have been forced to look at reality (which scares the bejeeses out of me)..

.. and thank you...i feel it will work out in a pleasant outcome for my birds .. ...i'm surprised my fingernails aren't bleeding yet ... lol

 

[johnskoi]

Hello there people in chicken land: Here's my somewhat rhetorical question, How does the USDA know who has chickens that are infected and who's aren't? How do they choose which flock coop to visit? They send people who are trained Inspectors who go to farms all over their territory, perhaps all over a given state, based on what kind of list? I personally have 7 chicks that are all under 6 mo's and chickielady was kind enough to give them Mereks shots when they were all 2 wks to aprox. 2 months old.
The Gov't vehicles go from place to place inspecting them based on something or another that they are searching for on their inspection check off list. However I wonder: Do these inspectors steam clean their trucks after they finish each inspection? I think not! They then go to another farm and don't have any idea whether the last place had any of those horrid diseases since more than likely they have to take specimens and send them to an approved lab. Meanwhile, exponentially they are spreading disease via themselves (clothing and footwear) and their vehicles tires. What I'm saying is that perhaps I'm, A.) paranoid or B) it is the inspectors that we should worry about as far as spreading these pathogens and Avian virus' from farm to farm on an exponential rate. Is there any kind of oversight?
You can't redirect Canadian Geese or wild birds and put up a detour sign up in the sky in an attempt to reroute them away from your flock... Okay I'm being silly here for a very sad situation.
Any time you have people coming to your farm to look at your chickens or livestock you are taking a risk (albeit a small one perhaps) but people get complacent and that includes Healthcare workers and USDA inspectors. It's human nature. (IMO). My chickens are fine, growing bigger and are healthy. Many of your flocks in these pages have been recently inspected and passed with flying colors. The sad thing is these mass killings of birds just in case is taking a terrible toll on the Egg and Chicken prices and on our hearts when we loose members of our flocks which for many are like family. Okay I'm done with my rhetoric and or rant. Thank you...

when i had my flock on Long Island, i was NEVER NPIP for the very reasons you state... i figured if anybody's carrying any thing, odds are it will be the people testing ---and never joined the the club or played with marek's vaccinations....(i had my flock tested days before moving them to va). i am currently RETHINKING my thought process... while they saw my security breaches, i wasn't blind to theirs... that being said, i KNOW if they would call BEFORE they showed up, they would be more than willing to comply with any reasonable request i made...they are GOOD people who have a very difficult job to do right now...

things being what they are right now, AND for our own peace of mind, i think we'd all be silly NOT to comply with NPIP and AI regulations...while nobody wants to be infected, i think most of us would be MORE affected knowing we passed it on..

as far as political issues go, i am and will probably stay in my own little world...it's SOOOO much happier there

 

[Chickielady]

if my BIRDS tested positive, i would put them down --- i do not want to pass this little bit of hell onto someone else....big guy or little guy ... although i know i'd hurt more passing it on to the little guy...by now, you all probably figured out i'm kind of a little more sensitive than most (that being said, i KNOW just about EVERYONE else who posted here is as well)... this is day 11... i know the 'powers that be' granted me a leniency -- and a BIG one at that -- if i KNEW my birds were clean, i'd move them in a heartbeat ... but i'm not the one in the lab which ULTIMATELY will be the final word.... if it comes back positive and my ALL of my birds still appear healthy on july 4th, i will request another lab to verify (something i SHOULD be looking into now)...otoh (randy travis again

) if they start appearing sick or dying, i WILL notify the proper people IMMEDIATELY....starting to drift with my thoughts and while i MORE than appreciate the sentiment, i have been forced to look at reality (which scares the bejeeses out of me)..

.. and thank you...i feel it will work out in a pleasant outcome for my birds .. ...i'm surprised my fingernails aren't bleeding yet ... lol

yeah yeah yeah, I know, that bit of molten giult keeps popping up in betwix the sadness & pain & loss of love & accomplishment...............yeah you are right...I would do the same.

I also want to know:

When the chicken police came out, did they confiscate the eggs you recieved from the contaminated hatchery ?
Or do you still have them in your incubator ?

 

[ChicKat]

when i had my flock on Long Island, i was NEVER NPIP for the very reasons you state... i figured if anybody's carrying any thing, odds are it will be the people testing ---and never joined the the club or played with marek's vaccinations....(i had my flock tested days before moving them to va). i am currently RETHINKING my thought process... while they saw my security breaches, i wasn't blind to theirs... that being said, i KNOW if they would call BEFORE they showed up, they would be more than willing to comply with any reasonable request i made...they are GOOD people who have a very difficult job to do right now...

things being what they are right now, AND for our own peace of mind, i think we'd all be silly NOT to comply with NPIP and AI regulations...while nobody wants to be infected, i think most of us would be MORE affected knowing we passed it on..

as far as political issues go, i am and will probably stay in my own little world...it's SOOOO much happier there

You really have a good outlook - and I also admire your honesty and integrity.

Some of these ideas brought up though do show 'holes' in biosecurity. I have seen that the flock disposers in the Georgia video appeared to be wearing boot covers etc. --

It concerns me that for annual P/T testing (the same tests given for NPIP in most states) - the tester has been to multiple sites locally that day - and will leave here and go to other sites....and when the man from the state comes to verify my head-count for my state seller license...I suspect he also has been to other flocks that day.

Are those little booties (That fit over shoes) effective?-- does anyone reading this have people walk through a bleach bath? How do you do it? how often do you 'refresh' it? - and how to keep their vehicle as far as possible from the area with chickens in. I guess they would comply if we had it set up --- Anyone have a set of procedures in place? And I guess all those are the norms at big chicken operations and they are still infected -- so does it come back to wild birds?

 

[johnskoi]

yeah yeah yeah, I know, that bit of molten giult keeps popping up in betwix the sadness & pain & loss of love & accomplishment...............yeah you are right...I would do the same.

I also want to know:

When the chicken police came out, did they confiscate the eggs you recieved from the contaminated hatchery ?
Or do you still have them in your incubator ?

on tuesday, they swabbed the eggs and incubators (tests were negative) and let me be under quarantine

on thursday, with 'destruction and disposal order' i would not sign off on the birds, but i did agree to letting them take every egg that in the incubators along with my pea eggs (held in a separate cooler room) that could have been sold -- things being what they are, i didn't feel comfortable selling them anyway ( and i refunded the two people that i did sell eggs to earlier that week and requested they either destroy them or send them back -- they both more than understood and complied)

my incubator bottoms are currently in the shower sitting in a tub with a healthy dose of bleach daily (i think i'm done with that) and the tops are sprayed and wiped down daily with bleach as well (i barely have fingerprints right now)

my outside pea egg count is climbing and as soon as a few go broody, they're getting a few extras..... that being said, i WILL NOT be sell anything this year and i hope i STAY smart enough NOT to bring anything in ....for those of you still ordering eggs, chicks, or birds, PLEASE make sure that you're ordering from an NPIP and AI tested source... and confirm it ... people DO lie...

so, yes they took the eggs and my incubators are empty....