HEADS UP AVIAN INFLUENZA ALERT

[enola]

I didn't read the article.

Commercial companies source their grains from the same place that everyone else does. That was why I was curious as to why you thought the virus was carried in the feed.

 

[MrsBachbach]

Does anyone have advice on taking preventative measures against this?

Keep your water sanitized and birds in peak condition would be about all we can do, other than locking them up tight which is impractical for most of us. Happy, stress free birds are healthy birds. Hopefully. Keep visitors off the farm and keep an extra pair of shoes in the car to change into when going out anywhere? Hope you don't get visited by waterfowl? I have concerns because a turkey farm is down the road and neighbor fertilizes his fields every year with turkey litter, twice a year. Idk, it was never my intention to keep birds penned up when I started my chicken venture, so I'm not set up to do so. I will do what I can to keep birds away from the feeders and keep the water sanitized, but beyond that it's

 

[MrsBachbach]

I didn't read the article.

Commercial companies source their grains from the same place that everyone else does. That was why I was curious as to why you thought the virus was carried in the feed.

Do they not use their own byproducts in the feed?

 

[enola]

What do you mean by "by products"?

 

[teanelly]

This makes me so nervous. I love my chickens but I also have a beloved Parrot too... I'm going to be very diligent

 

[MrsBachbach]

What do you mean by "by products"?

By products can include waste and feathers and legs and beaks and eggshells etc., etc. Even dead carcasses, but after the cow brain scare in europe, I think that practice is hopefully over.

 

[MrsBachbach]

My question is their milling operations. They may get their grain from the same source most milling operations do, but what else are they adding into their special mix? Because large scale poultry operations do have their own milling operations. Backyard flocks do not get the same grain commercial poultry farms do. One of the recent articles I read even said they were going to conduct tests on their feed, so, they know thats a possibility.

 

[teanelly]

I still think it's the feed. Surely they disinfect the water. These commercial operations have very high bio security measures yet they are the ones getting hit the most.
How are the backyard flocks around these infected commercial flocks faring? If it was indeed airborne, would they also not be hit?
I wonder exactly how many birds are found infected in these operations. I know if they even find one, the whole operation is culled, so numbers can be deceiving. Their concern is rapid transmission because of the density of birds in such operations and more concerning how quickly something can mutate when there are such large numbers involved. The risk of mutation is low in sparsely populated backyard flocks although spread very likely is just as easy.
My other concern is what is being done with infected carcasses? Are they being processed into the food chain? Pet foods? More concerning is what is happening to the litter in these operations? By products, from what I have read, includes chicken litter. My dog seems to love chicken poop, ugh. More worrying is farmers use chicken and turkey litter to spread on fields to fertilize ground. That is definitely a method of spread right there. What is happening to the litter? Because that is a bunch of poop to dispose of.

Why is it believed that commercial poultry farms have higher biosecurity than smaller chicken keepers... I'd think it would be the other way around. Surely it's easier for me with 13 chickens to keep a better/safer biosecure environment, right?

 

[WalnutHill]

http://www.aphis.usda.gov/publications/animal_health/2014/pub_bioguide_poultry_bird.pdf


Here is a backyard biosecurity pamphlet by APHIS. See how you do.

 

[MrsBachbach]

Although the article is from 2006, that does not make it irrelevant. Highly pathogenic bird flu strains started in Asia well over ten years ago. Poultry industries have exploded there in the last couple of decades. Density and genetics surely play a role in mutations.