Gaggle of Geese Lovers

[Callender Girl]

They are gorgeous!!

 

[fowltemptress]

Got them last evening and I think I'm obsessed
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They're beautiful!

 

[Goosebaby]

Got them last evening and I think I'm obsessed
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Precious wee bebes

 

[JRies]

Metzers got hit again with AI. 3 years in a row they have been hit at different farms. they are a main suppler of geese to back yard flocks. Yet many of us help keeping up the dream of sharing our geese. I actually ship day olds every spring with the goal of making the true heritage breeds available locally. Starting folks out with quality birds.
But here are my thoughts I will start it if you think its a good Idea. Geese available post. I know BYC has a market place but breeding season is so short.

Any thoughts....

 

[AGeese]

To all the Christmas geese who gave their lives for us this year, we salute you!

 

[fowltemptress]

Metzers got hit again with AI. 3 years in a row they have been hit at different farms. they are a main suppler of geese to back yard flocks. Yet many of us help keeping up the dream of sharing our geese. I actually ship day olds every spring with the goal of making the true heritage breeds available locally. Starting folks out with quality birds.
But here are my thoughts I will start it if you think its a good Idea. Geese available post. I know BYC has a market place but breeding season is so short.

Any thoughts....

Sigh . . .

The response to this is so outdated. It's time to quit destroying whole flocks. Unless the government is willing to drive the wild bird population to extinction we need to start breeding for resistance rather than continuously wiping out flocks that have been exposed - a practice that ensures resistance will never be achieved.

 

[Goosebaby]

Sigh . . .

The response to this is so outdated. It's time to quit destroying whole flocks. Unless the government is willing to drive the wild bird population to extinction we need to start breeding for resistance rather than continuously wiping out flocks that have been exposed - a practice that ensures resistance will never be achieved.

Exactly!

Less lethal strains of hpai have been known to protect birds from the more lethal strain, however live strains like this are dangerous as they are coronaviruses which mutate and exchange dna with each other readily, so todays beneficial strain may be tomorrows pandemic.

The EU has an avian vaccine for domestic flocks, but the USDA has only began developing a vaccine as of last year.
The USDA has never considered the lives of poultry of high importance, instead focusing on culling to limit the chance of human transmission, hence their apathy towards developing a vaccine, however this is a poor strategy.

Wild bird populations pose less of a zoonotic risk compared to domestic poultry, backyard flocks are theoretically a higher risk except owners are quicker to notice a problem, quarantine, and treat “if it’s treatable” when it arises compared to commercial flocks where a disease is already rampant by the time an issue is discovered. It makes more sense to vaccinate commercial and backyard flocks rather than repeatedly cull because it’s pointless now that the virus more or less endemic everywhere.
We can’t keep culling and repopulating, it doesn’t work.

 

[Goosebaby]

Exactly!

Less lethal strains of hpai have been known to protect birds from the more lethal strain, however live strains like this are dangerous as they are coronaviruses which mutate and exchange dna with each other readily, so todays beneficial strain may be tomorrows pandemic.

The EU has an avian vaccine for domestic flocks, but the USDA has only began developing a vaccine as of last year.
The USDA has never considered the lives of poultry of high importance, instead focusing on culling to limit the chance of human transmission, hence their apathy towards developing a vaccine, however this is a poor strategy.

Wild bird populations pose less of a zoonotic risk compared to domestic poultry, backyard flocks are theoretically a higher risk except owners are quicker to notice a problem, quarantine, and treat “if it’s treatable” when it arises compared to commercial flocks where a disease is already rampant by the time an issue is discovered. It makes more sense to vaccinate commercial and backyard flocks rather than repeatedly cull because it’s pointless now that the virus more or less endemic everywhere.
We can’t keep culling and repopulating, it doesn’t work.

Another reason the USDA has been resistant to developing a poultry vaccine for hpai is because of foreign import restrictions. Many countries will not allow live poultry imports that test positive for certain diseases, and antigen tests cannot determine if a bird that has antigens for a virus in it’s blood does so because it is infected and is a carrier or because it was vaccinated against that virus, and documentation isn’t always trustworthy.

So in a nutshell the poultry industry doesn’t really want a vaccine because it could cut into their profits with international exports.

 

[AGeese]

Exactly!

Less lethal strains of hpai have been known to protect birds from the more lethal strain, however live strains like this are dangerous as they are coronaviruses which mutate and exchange dna with each other readily, so todays beneficial strain may be tomorrows pandemic.

The EU has an avian vaccine for domestic flocks, but the USDA has only began developing a vaccine as of last year.
The USDA has never considered the lives of poultry of high importance, instead focusing on culling to limit the chance of human transmission, hence their apathy towards developing a vaccine, however this is a poor strategy.

Wild bird populations pose less of a zoonotic risk compared to domestic poultry, backyard flocks are theoretically a higher risk except owners are quicker to notice a problem, quarantine, and treat “if it’s treatable” when it arises compared to commercial flocks where a disease is already rampant by the time an issue is discovered. It makes more sense to vaccinate commercial and backyard flocks rather than repeatedly cull because it’s pointless now that the virus more or less endemic everywhere.
We can’t keep culling and repopulating, it doesn’t work.

Except heritage breeds particulary from breeders who select for hardiness, as opposed to hatcheries to sell as pets, should be more resilient than production breeds wether they're in the backyard or not.

For certain the poultry industry is maintaining weak stock if their birds are going to keel over with every new varient that comes along to the extent they have to cull everything in sight.

But they'll get insurrance and subsides I'm sure so there's no motivation to change.

 

[Amer]

High Path avian influenza as 90-100 percent mortality rates and birds remain carriers for life even if they are immune enough to fight enough their offspring will get it unless raised on different premises. If their offspring don't die in the shell. Vertical transmission also possible.
Sure, they might be immune but they are a big risk to susceptible populations. No one wants to buy stock from "pariah birds." So for commercial hatcheries this is unthinkable.
Also there is the fact that strains of Bird Flu that mutate to infect humans can have a 50 percent mortality rate.
I do believe that the few survivors of High Path should not be culled and should be collected for public research but anyone doing private research runs a huge risk to their reputation as a poultry supplier.