Devastating bird flu culling

[ElGoose]

I’m uk based and live in a beautiful area where I was lucky to be able to watch and interact with many wild geese for years living here.
I’ve watched many of them grow up from goslings - however just today I realise that there isn’t a wild goose in sight, I’ve come to find out that they have locally culled every wild goose they can due to finding bird flu in just one of them. It’s sickening, I’m devastated that they can do this.

I’m also worried for my flock - there’s a zone around my area now, what If they decide they want to cull my geese? What can I do to keep them safe? I already clean their waters every day and their sheds. I’m so worried as this uk culling spree never seems to end.
They’re killing everything they can whilst also declining vaccines to anything that isn’t a zoo bird.
It’s horrific… part of me thinks they won’t stop until every goose is dead.
If they demand to cull my birds can I refuse this?

 

[Chicken_Obsesser]

Hide them in the closet...!

 

[Goosebaby]

I’m uk based and live in a beautiful area where I was lucky to be able to watch and interact with many wild geese for years living here.
I’ve watched many of them grow up from goslings - however just today I realise that there isn’t a wild goose in sight, I’ve come to find out that they have locally culled every wild goose they can due to finding bird flu in just one of them. It’s sickening, I’m devastated that they can do this.

I’m also worried for my flock - there’s a zone around my area now, what If they decide they want to cull my geese? What can I do to keep them safe? I already clean their waters every day and their sheds. I’m so worried as this uk culling spree never seems to end.
They’re killing everything they can whilst also declining vaccines to anything that isn’t a zoo bird.
It’s horrific… part of me thinks they won’t stop until every goose is dead.
If they demand to cull my birds can I refuse this?

I’m so sorry. I’m not versed in U.K law so I can’t offer any legal advice, all I can say is if you have livestock agencies or lawyers that specialize in livestock reach out to them for information.

From what little I do know if you keep your birds under quarantine, in an area that wild birds can’t access it that should protect them from the threat of culling.

As for the wild flock, that is heartbreaking. Bird flu is incredibly serious, but many nations are treating it as they would if they are still trying to contain it which is nonsensical and non productive at this point. It’s everywhere, there is no containing it. Culling a flock amounts to nothing as another flock will just replace it and they may have it too. Wild ducks are the primary reservoir so do we eradicate wild ducks? Will their extinction be enough?

The main concern is protecting the food chain, they’re afraid of commercial losses of poultry, but most farms in developed nations try to limit contact with their flocks and wild birds because of bird flu anyway. However bird flu is now endemic, so playing catch up isn’t helpful, they should be proactive with allowing vaccination of commercial and private flocks.

 

[ElGoose]

Hide them in the closet...!

Hahaha, thank you for this comment - definitely lifted my spirits a bit I really might do if it gets worse lol

 

[ElGoose]

I’m so sorry. I’m not versed in U.K law so I can’t offer any legal advice, all I can say is if you have livestock agencies or lawyers that specialize in livestock reach out to them for information.

From what little I do know if you keep your birds under quarantine, in an area that wild birds can’t access it that should protect them from the threat of culling.

As for the wild flock, that is heartbreaking. Bird flu is incredibly serious, but many nations are treating it as they would if they are still trying to contain it which is nonsensical and non productive at this point. It’s everywhere, there is no containing it. Culling a flock amounts to nothing as another flock will just replace it and they may have it too. Wild ducks are the primary reservoir so do we eradicate wild ducks? Will their extinction be enough?

The main concern is protecting the food chain, they’re afraid of commercial losses of poultry, but most farms in developed nations try to limit contact with their flocks and wild birds because of bird flu anyway. However bird flu is now endemic, so playing catch up isn’t helpful, they should be proactive with allowing vaccination of commercial and private flocks.

Yep absolutely, thank you for your advice.

They’ve made it very clear that their only interests are preserving food products and their only actions against bird flu have been culling and culling and culling.
They refuse to invest in other options such as vaccinating and looking into treatments for avian influenza, they think they can just cull it out through wild birds - they wont even approve vaccines for non zoo or factory birds and claim that the vaccines aren’t effective (aka we don’t want to spend money on animals we don’t like)

 

[Perris]

Yep absolutely, thank you for your advice.

They’ve made it very clear that their only interests are preserving food products and their only actions against bird flu have been culling and culling and culling.
They refuse to invest in other options such as vaccinating and looking into treatments for avian influenza, they think they can just cull it out through wild birds - they wont even approve vaccines for non zoo or factory birds and claim that the vaccines aren’t effective (aka we don’t want to spend money on animals we don’t like)

Get a grip. Go to the gov website and inform yourself of the actual policies. They will not cull your birds unless one or more of them tests positive.

There is currently only 1 small area of the country affected: see
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/bird-flu-avian-influenza-latest-situation-in-england

 

[Goosebaby]

Yep absolutely, thank you for your advice.

They’ve made it very clear that their only interests are preserving food products and their only actions against bird flu have been culling and culling and culling.
They refuse to invest in other options such as vaccinating and looking into treatments for avian influenza, they think they can just cull it out through wild birds - they wont even approve vaccines for non zoo or factory birds and claim that the vaccines aren’t effective (aka we don’t want to spend money on animals we don’t like)

It’s pointless logic, if public safety were their concern, well people have much more contact with their backyard flocks compared to commercial poultry or wild birds, so for the public’s safety it would be in everyone’s best interest to vaccinate backyard poultry…..but as usual special interest doesn’t actually care.

Vaccination is the best treatment of bird flu through prevention, however I remember reading one study out of Europe that found promising results in administering oseltamivir “tamiflu” in conjunction with a corticosteroid, like prednisone or dexamethasone at the first signs of illness or suspected infection and administered throughout the duration of illness.
Basically it’s the same principle of how people with severe immune responses to viruses like Covid or bird flu are treated: corticosteroids to stop the body from producing more cytokines and nuking the person’s organs while the antiviral works on killing the virus.

Once upon a time tamiflu was sold over the counter here in the U.S but thanks to people clearing shelves of it during the swine flu outbreak in the early 2000s it became prescription only. If you can get it over the counter where you are it’s something to have around.

 

[ElGoose]

Get a grip. Go to the gov website and inform yourself of the actual policies. They will not cull your birds unless one or more of them tests positive.

There is currently only 1 small area of the country affected: see
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/bird-flu-avian-influenza-latest-situation-in-england

Yes. MY AREA is affected. Did you miss that part? Get a grip and read my post again, they’ve just culled a large amount of wild geese that lived here.

Your hostility was not needed on this post whatsoever.

 

[Perris]

Yes. MY AREA is affected. Did you miss that part? Get a grip and read my post again, they’ve just culled a large amount of wild geese that lived here.

Your hostility was not needed on this post whatsoever.

Exaggeration helps no-one, including yourself

They’re killing everything they can whilst also declining vaccines to anything that isn’t a zoo bird.
It’s horrific… part of me thinks they won’t stop until every goose is dead.

 

[Perris]

their only actions against bird flu have been culling and culling and culling

is just false. E.g. The page I linked to says explicitly
"
Defra continues to invest in bird flu research and monitors the situation globally.

We work with the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) to monitor the development of vaccines for birds.

Find out more information on avian influenza (bird flu) vaccination and the work of the avian influenza vaccination taskforce. "