HEADS UP AVIAN INFLUENZA ALERT

[ChickenCanoe]

For years they've been stressing quarantining birds that are taken to shows for a month to include exclusion from the rest of the flock at home and changing shoes and clothes as you travel at home between the flock and show bird. How many people actually do that?

I wondered, so I asked people at our county fair last spring. NO one there di, not even the 4H kids. they show birds for days on end. Have random people come in to view and touch them from everywhere, and go home and toss the show bird back into the flock.


Ugh.

My neighbors aren't even allowed to visit my birds anyone. Not since one showed up announced with her 2 year old uncontrolled child and a three week old kitten, which she put down in my coop! Not sure which misbehaved more, cat, kid, or mother.

Which reminds me, I need to order bio secure farm, nonvisitors at any time signs

We have a big chicken meetup group with over 700 members of which I am one of the organizers. We occasionally have coop tours. We always have foot baths before anyone can enter. This has been going on for years. Since I got NPIP certification, no one has been allowed here if they have contact with chickens. I use shoes and boots only for work in the chicken yards.

 

[chicknmania]

Two more backyard flocks in Iowa.

It's disgusting that these big farms are wanting to use landfills to dispose of their birds. I guess I don't know how else they'd do it, but it seems to me that would be a way for the disease to spread...those landfills do have vent systems ( I experienced being near a landfill recently for a few hours)

I can't imagine what the smell would be like for the poor people who have to live, work, or otherwise be near the landfill.

 

[MrsBachbach]

Two more backyard flocks in Iowa.   It's disgusting that these big farms are wanting to use landfills to dispose of their birds.  I guess I don't know how else they'd do it, but it seems to me that would be a way for the disease to spread...those landfills do have vent systems ( I experienced being near a landfill recently for a few hours)   I can't imagine what the smell would be like for the poor people who have to live, work, or otherwise be near the landfill.

I saw an article yesterday that had pics of them disposing of the millions of birds from an egg laying facility. They aren't composting them in place, they are moving them out exposed with heavy machinery and then burying them in farm fields.

 

[WalnutHill]

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/st...outh-dakota-nebraska-minnesota-usda/27505309/

There is the article.

 

[chicknmania]

Just horrible.

And if they make a mistake, and there's more contamination...or worse...it will just be "oh, whoops". Just like the reaction to all the other disasters there've been around the world.

 

[chicknmania]

wonder how deep they bury them? Hopefully deep enough that something hungry isn't going to dig them up......

 

[Sweetpea3829]

I was pointed to this thread from the NY chicken owners thread...

In light of the recent news that NY has stopped all live poultry shows, I'm looking for some info on what to look for in my flock, how to protect my flock etc. I'm not freaking out or anything, I just am a somewhat new chicken hobbiest and this is my first experience with something along these lines.

As it turns out, this thread is pretty long...can anybody summarize for me in a nutshell, so I don't spend all night reading about AI? LOL!

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

As it turns out, this thread is pretty long...can anybody summarize for me in a nutshell, so I don't spend all night reading about AI?  LOL!  

For reals? I think typing/writing is slower/harder than reading.

I just googled "how to protect your backyard flock from AI" and got a whole bunch of promising links. If you did the same search you'd find exactly what you're asking someone to type up.

Then you could come back here and post the best of what you find.

 

[Sweetpea3829]

For reals? I think typing/writing is slower/harder than reading.

I just googled "how to protect your backyard flock from AI" and got a whole bunch of promising links. If you did the same search you'd find exactly what you're asking someone to type up.

Then you could come back here and post the best of what you find.

Leslie, thanks for your helpful, tactful advice.

It really isn't any of your business but...I home school four children. In addition to taking care of the home, the flock, the orchard, etc. I spend more time on the internet than I'd like to spend as it is, researching various ways to meet each kiddo's needs, finding necessary resources for our science topics, networking with other HS moms of LD kids, and trying to figure out what the heck is wrong with our peach trees. Among other things.

There are 27 pages to this thread.

Googling brought me dozens of different articles on bird influenza, possibly because my search terms were not precise enough. I really don't have the time to sift through it all, or I would have done so. Using your search terms brought up results closer to what I was looking for. So thanks for that.

If a basic summary of 27 pages is asking too much, please...do forgive me.

 

[thegawd]

Sources of avian diseases

Disease in poultry and other avian species can be spread in a number of ways, including:

• through diseased birds or birds carrying disease;
• through animals other than birds (farm animals, pets, wild birds and other wildlife, vermin and insects);
• on the clothing and shoes of visitors and employees moving from flock-to-flock;
• in contaminated feed, water, bedding and litter;
• from the carcasses of dead birds;
• on contaminated farm equipment and vehicles;
• through contact with neighbouring flocks; or
• in airborne particles and dust blown by the wind.

USDA
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/wps/porta...on/sa_avian_health/ct_avian_influenza_disease

USDA UPDATES
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/wps/porta.../sa_detections_by_states/ct_ai_pacific_flyway

USDA BACKYARD FLOCK BIO SECURITY RECOMMENDATIONS - its down right now for updates it would seem...
http://healthybirds.aphis.usda.gov/


Canadian Food Inspection Agency
How to Prevent and Detect Disease in Backyard Flocks and Pet Birds

http://www.inspection.gc.ca/animals...health-basics/eng/1323643634523/1323644740109

CFIA UPDATES

http://www.inspection.gc.ca/animals...ation-ontario/eng/1428441187420/1428441189060

All of my birds have been under a self imposed lockdown for the last month. I have about 100 chickens, ducks, geese (that hatched 4 goslings yesterday), guineas, quail, beltsville small white turkeys and probably something im forgetting off the top of my head and not including any babies... They do not have access to outside and are completly isolated from all wild birds. i already had a rodent managment plan but i timesed it by 5. I am the only person who takes care of them, I have bleach foot baths in each coop/barn right in the doorway and dedicated boots only for my birds. this was no easy task to complete and i stressed quite a bit over it but I got er done. now im working on wild bird proofing all my outdoor runs so I can let them back out. big changes taking place around here. I stopped selling eggs, no birds have left my property and no birds have entered. i shut my incubators off 2 weeks ago and wouldnt have even put any eggs in them if i knew this was potentially coming. Im extreamly paranoid about going to the feed mill and have switched mills to one that has an all paved laneway and keeps it clean. i have shoes only for the feed store and remove them before getting in my truck and sterilize them with bleach. As soon as I pull into my drive way i spray my tires and undercarriage with bleach, drive 1 foot then do it again. I think thats about it as far as my birds go...

Now im also a hunter who is chasing the ever elusive wild turkey and this involves a whole other bio security set up for me...

Now am I paranoid? I dont know but there have been 38000000 bIrds infected in the U.S. and 80000 here in Ontario, Canada about 150 Miles from me so no I dont think Im paranoid but am rather being proactive in protecting our birds and our livelihood.

Now one thing I will say as I dont believe the scientific data is complete and something very important is missing... whatever the hell is connecting all these farms together and spreading it around... im not exactly sold on the idea it is the wild birds infecting these farms. no wild birds have tested positive in Ontario, and not as many as one would think in the U.S. I think its the farms infecting the wild birds, not the other way around.

USDA WILD BIRDS TESTED POSITIVE FOR AI (ITS A PDF)

http://www.aphis.usda.gov/wildlife_...VIAN INFLUENZA CASES IN THE UNITED STATES.pdf

Be Safe Everyone!!!

Al