HEADS UP AVIAN INFLUENZA ALERT

[chicknmania]

Great.

 

[MrsBachbach]

Someone else said that about chasing the waterfowl away, but not sure if that makes any difference.  They still poop and also poop flying over.  I also heard or read somewhere (and this is weird) that it hasn't been found in any wild turkeys.

Nothing weird or surprising about that. Wild turkeys likely have more genetic diversity than commercial turkeys. They are hardier too.

 

[mg15]

I cannot believe Iowa wants to bury the sick chickens in NE for disposal. What are they thinking?
Also, an Indianna backyard poultry flock has a strain from the West.

If you get a chance read the comments at the end of the article on the web:
http://news.yahoo.com/bird-flu-outbreak-hits-nebraska-poultry-farm-16th-204902887--sector.html


Bird flu outbreak hits Nebraska poultry farm: USDA


By P.J. Huffstutter 5 hours ago

Tracing the bird flu outbreak in North American poultry flocks Reuters

(Reuters) - The fast-spreading avian flu virus was confirmed for the first time in Nebraska, at a commercial egg-laying farm that housed a flock of 1.7 million chickens, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Tuesday.

The case in Dixon County, Nebraska, brings the number of states affected by the outbreak to 16, and the U.S. tally of birds that have either died or will be killed to 32 million.

The U.S. poultry and egg industry has been grappling for months with the biggest outbreak on record of avian influenza in the United States.

Authorities do not know how the H5N2 virus reached the Nebraska farm. The property has been quarantined and the flock will be culled, USDA said.

"Unfortunately, Nebraska has joined a long list of states currently dealing with highly pathogenic avian influenza," said Greg Ibach, director of the Nebraska Department of Agriculture.
Nebraska farmers and state regulators have voiced growing concern about the virus spreading from neighboring Iowa, where more than 24 million birds from 39 farm sites have been affected.

The worries recently prompted one Nebraska landfill owner to turn down business from a poultry farm in Iowa, whose owners were seeking a place to dispose of a culled flock due to avian influenza, said Brian McManus, spokesman for the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality.
"Some people from our agency met with the landfill owner. We had voiced some concerns about the hazards of transporting poultry carcasses right now, because of the risk of spreading the virus," said McManus, who declined to identify the name of the landfill. "Right now, transporting those birds is an option we discourage."

HEIGHTENED CONCERNS
The continuing spread of the highly contagious H5 virus is worrying to farmers and investigators, who have hoped that warmer spring weather would help lower the number of infections in birds and curtail the virus' spread.
But the outbreak has shown few signs of waning so far. On Monday, a strain of avian flu that had previously been found only in the Western United States cropped up in an Indiana backyard poultry flock.

The H5 strains in the current U.S. outbreak pose a low risk to human health, experts say, and no human infections have been identified so far.

There have been three strains of H5 identified in North America in this outbreak.
In addition to Nebraska, other states with the H5N2 virus are Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Washington and Wisconsin. The virus has also been identified on farms in British Columbia and Ontario, Canada.

The highly pathogenic H5N8 strain had been found in California, Idaho, Indiana, Oregon and Washington. The Canadian authorities also have confirmed the H5N1 strain was found in British Columbia, Canada.

(Reporting by P.J. Huffstutter in Chicago; Editing by Diane Craft and Matthew Lewis)

 

[SueIowa]

Being from Northwest Iowa I am smack dab in the middle of the hot zone for the bird flu. My husband and I have a huge flock of free ranging chickens and ducks and turkeys. We also have large farm pond that our ducks have shared with wild Canadian geese, wild ducks and blue herons for the last 6 years including this spring. I have had no sick birds. We don't sell our eggs as we have family members relying on us for eggs. It is interesting all the frenzy and daily news about this terrible situation taking place mostly in the Midwest locally we have had hardly a word in our newspaper and limited stories on the radio except for statistics of how many facilities are being effected. We have no idea except for one or two leaks of which egg, chicken or turkey facilities have found infected with bird flu. In the county south of us they now have 14 infected facilities and just in the last couple days the National Guard is setting up barriers. We have not been contacted by any USDA officials even though we are on heavily traveled road and most people in our community know we have large backyard flock as we also have pumpkin farm we open every fall. There has been no officials knocking on our door or notifications that anybody local has been found with bird flu infecting their birds even though we know one in our county has it. It seems like with the national news running story after story about the bird flu around here it is very quiet. The other thing that bothers me is that in all the articles and research I have done there is not one scientist or official that can say exactly how this is being spread or how exactly the source. So far it has been all speculation. Yes...it could be the wild birds as they carry the gene and it can be found in traces of their feces. But scientists have known that for years. About these facilities being effected I want to see the links between each facility that has it... That is what the news isn't telling us. How many of these facilities have gotten bird flu due to a human factors spreading the disease? It's just odd that with the huge media hype and coverage locally there is no detailed information coming out. Maybe I am a fool but I am letting my chickens run and have the same free range habitat they have always have. The only difference is we are more aggressive keeping wild birds off our pond. In the long run I figure if my birds get sick there is not much I can do. If the USDA wants to test my birds go right ahead... Again I am not going to be in a panic as there are too many unknowns not being said. Thanks for reading and sorry for long rant. I love all my birds and hope this terrible tragedy goes away but it doesn't look like it. Sue

 

[WalnutHill]

Being from Northwest Iowa I am smack dab in the middle of the hot zone for the bird flu. My husband and I have a huge flock of free ranging chickens and ducks and turkeys. We also have large farm pond that our ducks have shared with wild Canadian geese, wild ducks and blue herons for the last 6 years including this spring. I have had no sick birds. We don't sell our eggs as we have family members relying on us for eggs. It is interesting all the frenzy and daily news about this terrible situation taking place mostly in the Midwest locally we have had hardly a word in our newspaper and limited stories on the radio except for statistics of how many facilities are being effected. We have no idea except for one or two leaks of which egg, chicken or turkey facilities have found infected with bird flu. In the county south of us they now have 14 infected facilities and just in the last couple days the National Guard is setting up barriers. We have not been contacted by any USDA officials even though we are on heavily traveled road and most people in our community know we have large backyard flock as we also have pumpkin farm we open every fall. There has been no officials knocking on our door or notifications that anybody local has been found with bird flu infecting their birds even though we know one in our county has it. It seems like with the national news running story after story about the bird flu around here it is very quiet. The other thing that bothers me is that in all the articles and research I have done there is not one scientist or official that can say exactly how this is being spread or how exactly the source. So far it has been all speculation. Yes...it could be the wild birds as they carry the gene and it can be found in traces of their feces. But scientists have known that for years. About these facilities being effected I want to see the links between each facility that has it... That is what the news isn't telling us. How many of these facilities have gotten bird flu due to a human factors spreading the disease? It's just odd that with the huge media hype and coverage locally there is no detailed information coming out. Maybe I am a fool but I am letting my chickens run and have the same free range habitat they have always have. The only difference is we are more aggressive keeping wild birds off our pond. In the long run I figure if my birds get sick there is not much I can do. If the USDA wants to test my birds go right ahead... Again I am not going to be in a panic as there are too many unknowns not being said. Thanks for reading and sorry for long rant. I love all my birds and hope this terrible tragedy goes away but it doesn't look like it. Sue

Unfortunately, if the USDA led teams come to see you, it won't be to test your flock, it will be to exterminate it to reduce the risk pool.

 

[chicknmania]

Being from Northwest Iowa I am smack dab in the middle of the hot zone for the bird flu. My husband and I have a huge flock of free ranging chickens and ducks and turkeys. We also have large farm pond that our ducks have shared with wild Canadian geese, wild ducks and blue herons for the last 6 years including this spring. I have had no sick birds. We don't sell our eggs as we have family members relying on us for eggs. It is interesting all the frenzy and daily news about this terrible situation taking place mostly in the Midwest locally we have had hardly a word in our newspaper and limited stories on the radio except for statistics of how many facilities are being effected. We have no idea except for one or two leaks of which egg, chicken or turkey facilities have found infected with bird flu. In the county south of us they now have 14 infected facilities and just in the last couple days the National Guard is setting up barriers. We have not been contacted by any USDA officials even though we are on heavily traveled road and most people in our community know we have large backyard flock as we also have pumpkin farm we open every fall. There has been no officials knocking on our door or notifications that anybody local has been found with bird flu infecting their birds even though we know one in our county has it. It seems like with the national news running story after story about the bird flu around here it is very quiet. The other thing that bothers me is that in all the articles and research I have done there is not one scientist or official that can say exactly how this is being spread or how exactly the source. So far it has been all speculation. Yes...it could be the wild birds as they carry the gene and it can be found in traces of their feces. But scientists have known that for years. About these facilities being effected I want to see the links between each facility that has it... That is what the news isn't telling us. How many of these facilities have gotten bird flu due to a human factors spreading the disease? It's just odd that with the huge media hype and coverage locally there is no detailed information coming out. Maybe I am a fool but I am letting my chickens run and have the same free range habitat they have always have. The only difference is we are more aggressive keeping wild birds off our pond. In the long run I figure if my birds get sick there is not much I can do. If the USDA wants to test my birds go right ahead... Again I am not going to be in a panic as there are too many unknowns not being said. Thanks for reading and sorry for long rant. I love all my birds and hope this terrible tragedy goes away but it doesn't look like it. Sue

Thanks so much for posting this, it's very comforting to me and I'm sure it is to others also. I have been in a frenzy of worry about this (that should be obvious). Yesterday I tried to lock down our flock, and they were immediately stressed, they knew something was up. and why wouldn't they? Whenever we lock them down, it means someone is going to get chased, caught, and confined. Or it's nighttime. Or very cold. So wth? Anyway, it caused a flurry of furious fighting among some individuals in the flock, that I have never seen before. I'm sure they can sense the stress in the their human caretakers. And one of my peacocks has been following me everywhere, whenever he sees me he comes trotting up to me, he even followed my car out to the road last evening and waited out there til I came home, then followed me all the way back up the driveway! Very unusual behaviour, so I'm sure he can feel the stress as well. I spoke to a friend of mine last night and asked what she would do. She pointed out (as others have) that locking them down will no doubt cause it's own set of circumstances leading to possible illness. She said the exact same thing you just said about not being able to do much if the USDA comes knocking. Based on that, I decided to leave my flock as is. (freeranging). And just hope, pray, and try to keep them as happy, healthy, stress free, and immune system boosted, as possible. You are not an idiot, everyone has their own set of circumstances and must act in the way they see fit. Thanks for sharing.

 

[chicchic25]

i came across this. Can't reveal much about who or where it's from, but here you go.

xxxxxxxxxxxx last week…we got to talking about the HPAIV and inspector told me that USDA will be doing randomized testing on backyard flocks – basically…they drive past your house and see you have chickens…they will knock on your door, pay you for what your flock is worth and take the birds…

At times I wonder how knowledgeable the inspector is…so I don’t know how much truth there is to this but figured I’d throw that tid-bit of info out to stir a pot…

So and here are MY questions. a) I thought they could test without killing the bird.b) What if you don't answer the door? c) Are they really going to spend time catching them, or do they throw the book at you if you don't catch them and hand the birds over to them? and d) Does the government really have that much time, money, and extra help on their hands that they can just randomly wander around the countryside???

BRING IT ON!

But seriously.....we are new to chicken raising and have a very tiny backyard flock (6 Red Sex Links), I can only speak for myself when I say the USDA would have to bring the Police with them if they want to take our girls. Our girls don't free range and their run is under a roof, all walls consist of 1/4" wire mesh and as of a few weeks ago we try to maintain a strict habit of bio security. Nothing is fool proof, especially since they aren't 100% sure how its spreading. I don't think you are too far off base in regards to the agro-terrorism. We have also thrown around the idea, it's a frightening thought but in the world we all live in you can't rule it out. Best of luck with your flock.

 

[SueIowa]

Unfortunately, if the USDA led teams come to see you, it won't be to test your flock, it will be to exterminate it to reduce the risk pool.

. So you are saying that the USDA is going to sweep in without any warning,no testing, or no quarantine period and wipe out my flock. Yes I seen your previous posts about the USDA eradicating all potential sources of avian virus but you show me where this is happening or happened to people like me or my neighbors who all have chicken coops. I live in rural farming community and I can show you over 50 backyard flocks in this county alone and not one of us had been contacted by any county official or the USDA. So to take bio security measures to protect my flock I should lock up all my birds in my 6 chicken coops is going to prevent my birds getting sick?! Yep... That really worked for all the huge chicken or egg laying facilities. They still got sick. Until the USDA figures out exactly why the avian flu is spreading it is pure speculation. I am not going to panic as again there is nothing any of us can do about it except the same I have always done. Take care of my flock, keep their water clean, feed them fresh greens and other healthy food sources, yes... Let them free range.

 

[WalnutHill]

It's VERY clear that the USDA response plan is solely to protect commercial operations. Backyarders/small farmers are statistically insignificant even en masse, and the USDA is working with states, who are mobilizing National Guard, to step up for "containment" procedures.

If this strain was highly virulent to humans, I might have a different perspective. But as it only has "potential" to mutate into a human virulent and in its present state only affect birds, I believe the escalated responses are out of line. It's the close contact production facilities that allow this disease to spread like wildfire, not the free rangers. And the numbers are staggering. I think Iowa has lost about 16% of its production egg layers so far.

Yes, the government DOES have the authority of law to seize contaminated plants and animals. But as in most cases, the assumption is not "undiseased until proven diseased" but rather the opposite. A flock is "probably" sick. Therefore it can be seized and euthanized and perhaps even tested. A directive from the USDA via a state's governor to the National Guard will likely be a challenge to combat on many fronts.

http://bigmedicine.ca/wordpress/201...hpai-avian-flu-outbreak/#sthash.EqsgNAX6.dpbs

**Note: edited to remove the word "you" taken out of context by a member when reiterating USDA responses and those of a linked web article**

 

[WthrLady]

Backyard flock of 77 culled Sunday in Indiana, tested positive for AI.

They can and do test without killing. Vent swab.

Also skeptical of Feds swooping into private property and taking, and destroying, property without probable cause or permission. Screams lawsuit and a hiney full of buck shot.

I have a bio secure flock, from visitors, I can't control fly over critters. Neighbors aren't even allowed near my birds. Wandering inspectors that have been to farm after farm after farm would really tick me off.