FedEx won't ship my chicken for necropsy!! What do I do??

[ChickenCanoe]

I looked at their website, and technically "livestock" is on their Prohibited list:

FedEx Cross Border Global Prohibited Items

• All commodities valued over US$20,000 without approval
• One-of-a-kind/irreplaceable articles such as artwork valued over US$500,000 each
• Flammables with a flash point of 140 degrees Fahrenheit or less
• Auto parts with fluids in them
• Fine art
• Fine jewelry
• Furs
• Pornography/obscene material
• Precious metals such as gold, silver and platinum in the form of bullion, coins or ingots
• Watches valued over US$1000
• Weapons and weapons accessories
• Bullion and money of every description such as (but without prejudice to the generality of this clause) cash, bank notes, coins, currency notes or currency of any kind
• Stamps (postage or revenue); vouchers; tokens; tickets of any kind; and credit, debit or cash cards
• Time-sensitive or critical written materials or documents including, but not limited to, bids and contract proposals
• Contraband including, but not limited to, illicit drugs and counterfeit goods
• Livestock, bloodstock and living animals
• Human remains
• Division 1.1 Explosives (e.g., mines and nitroglycerine)
• Division 1.2 Explosives (e.g., rockets and warheads)
• Division 1.3 Explosives (e.g., smoke signals, projectiles and commercial fireworks)
• Division 1.5 Explosives (e.g., blasting agents)
• Division 1.6 Explosives
• Division 2.3 Toxic Gas
• Division 6.2 Infectious Substances
• Class 7 Radioactive Material including White I, Yellow II, Yellow III and fissile material

But the OP isn't shipping across an international border. They are shipping within their own state.
Of course livestock is not allowed to be shipped internationally without lots of documentation and veterinary certification and then still disallowed from certain groups of countries that haven't been declared free of virulent diseases like exotic Newcastle.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

So I have a question... if you have a bird with an unknown disease... how do you know that you’re not spreading the disease when shipping it?

I’m not intending to be argumentative... I’m just genuinely curious.

Hence the proper packaging line which would preclude pathogens escaping.
When the package arrives at the lab, they take appropriate precautions. All they have there are dead animals anyway.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Thanks for the reply!

It’s more the packaging and delivery that I was curious about... more than after it arrives at the lab...

Is there somewhere that these federal packaging guidelines are listed?

And secondly how does FedEx ( or any other carrier ) verify that those guidelines were followed?

https://www.vet.cornell.edu/animal-health-diagnostic-center/testing/shipping/necropsy-specimens

They don't always verify but the PirateGirl post has the guidelines.

 

[OhZark Biddies]

They don't always verify but the PirateGirl post has the guidelines.

Thanks!
I must have scrolled right past that link earlier

 

[OhZark Biddies]

They don't always verify but the PirateGirl post has the guidelines.

So that link didn’t actually contain any federal guidelines... just recommendations from that university...

... but I think this link has the guidelines:

49 CFR 173.199 and IATA Packing Instruction 650
https://www2.cdc.gov/narms/docs/PI650_2006.pdf

Concerning shipping there is a clear distinction between category A ( infectious substances) and category B ( biological substances)

The part that I still don’t understand is how someone, the carcass owner, or fedex person... could know that the contents are:
1) a category B rather than category A
2) packaged and contained properly

Am I still missing something?

 

[PirateGirl]

So that link didn’t actually contain any federal guidelines... just recommendations from that university...

... but I think this link has the guidelines:

49 CFR 173.199 and IATA Packing Instruction 650
https://www2.cdc.gov/narms/docs/PI650_2006.pdf

Concerning shipping there is a clear distinction between category A ( infectious substances) and category B ( biological substances)

The part that I still don’t understand is how someone, the carcass owner, or fedex person... could know that the pathogens are:
1) a category B rather than category A
2) packaged and contained properly

Am I still missing something?

Shipping companies can open and inspect anything they want or find questionable. Packages get sniffed by dogs and sent through xrays and extensively screened at larger sorting facilities and distribution centers. The person you hand your box to on the day its shipped might not do anything but your package goes through a lot of steps/people/places before reaching final destination. Any shipping company should be able to provide you the shipping guidelines/packaging requirements.

 

[PirateGirl]

Here are the guidelines specifically from fedex

http://www.fedex.com/downloads/shared/packagingtips/pointers.pdf

 

[BigMoma3]

So that link didn’t actually contain any federal guidelines... just recommendations from that university...

... but I think this link has the guidelines:

49 CFR 173.199 and IATA Packing Instruction 650
https://www2.cdc.gov/narms/docs/PI650_2006.pdf

Concerning shipping there is a clear distinction between category A ( infectious substances) and category B ( biological substances)

The part that I still don’t understand is how someone, the carcass owner, or fedex person... could know that the contents are:
1) a category B rather than category A
2) packaged and contained properly

Am I still missing something?

The 49 CFR and IATA are the correct federal guidelines that FedEx's website mentions. As far as "category a" goes, very few poultry illnesses are zoonotic (transferable to people) so it wouldn't be considered infectious or "category a". However, if you did suspect something zoonotic such as Avian flu from the symptoms your bird showed, you couldn't ship it. You are supposed to contact CDC and they handle it. I read the article on it before but can't find the website now. If I do I'll post it.

Also, if the shipping company knows you are shipping category b, I'm sure they are probably required to check it. And I'm sure they have guidelines to tell them what to look for since I found them on their website. It also says they are allowed to refuse the package if it doesn't meet the IATA or ICAO federal standards.

 

[OhZark Biddies]

Here are the guidelines specifically from fedex

http://www.fedex.com/downloads/shared/packagingtips/pointers.pdf

From the FedEx pdf you linked to I see this

If I have a couple chickens become ill and die from some unknown disease ... it seems prudent to assume or at least suspect there is a “probable infectious substance” present, no? ...

So I still don’t understand how I know if my dead chicken is a type A infectious substance or a type B bilogical substance without a lab telling me... but in order to ship it to the lab I must know first? ... seems like a catch 22 ...

 

[OhZark Biddies]

The 49 CFR and IATA are the correct federal guidelines that FedEx's website mentions. As far as "category a" goes, very few poultry illnesses are zoonotic (transferable to people) so it wouldn't be considered infectious or "category a". However, if you did suspect something zoonotic such as Avian flu from the symptoms your bird showed, you couldn't ship it. You are supposed to contact CDC and they handle it. I read the article on it before but can't find the website now. If I do I'll post it.

Also, if the shipping company knows you are shipping category b, I'm sure they are probably required to check it. And I'm sure they have guidelines to tell them what to look for since I found them on their website. It also says they are allowed to refuse the package if it doesn't meet the IATA or ICAO federal standards.

I thought I read that typeA is anything that is infectious to people or animals....