This is not a sure outcome to the new H7N9 bird flu virus recently found in China, this is just one possibility.
The same thing will happen in this country that happens in China. That thing is that a squad of DHLS or CDC types dressed in hazmat suits will descend on your back yard. They will be caring plastic bags with dry ice in them. They will stuff your fowl in these black bags and as the dry ice "melts" the carbon-dioxide it gives off will suffocate your chickens. This is very likely how China goes about it.
A quick test to see that your chickens are covered in feathers is likely the only test any chicken will get before it is bagged. There will be a national emergency declared and civil liberties like due process and saying pretty please will be a non starter. You can sue the FDA, DHLS, or the CDC after wards if you like, that is if they say that you can sue them, this last statement is part of the Constitution.
Time will be of the essence and the big problem with your chickens is that, your chickens are chickens. That makes your chickens a living, breathing, mobile, petri dish waiting to grow off any new germ or virus that any chicken is hosts to. In other words the only way for the FDA etc to protect any chicken from the H7N9 flu virus is to kill all the chickens that they can get their hands on so that these chickens can't act as a repository or incubator for the H7N9 virus. Another way to look at it is like the CDC is a forest ranger setting a smaller back fire to deny a larger forest fire fuel and room to grow.
If this description is a little too graphic, remember that I warned you about willy-nilly "rescuing" or treating sick birds until after any bird flu hysteria is past. I would also discourage anyone from allowing pigeons to congregate or eat with their flock. If H7N9 makes it to our shores the only thing that will protect your chickens is keeping them inside and isolated from routes of infection like other chickens, pigeons, other domestic fowl, and wild birds. In that case free ranging will be the worst thing that you can do for your fowl, not the best.
The idea of testing you chickens for the H7N9 virus implies that there is a cure for the H7N9 virus. There is currently no cure for any virus that affects either man nor beast, and especially there is no test or cure (that I know of) for the H7N9 bird flu.
