HEADS UP AVIAN INFLUENZA ALERT

[MrsBachbach]

I've posted links on this thread with steps a backyarder can take to protect their flocks. It's the same as any other bio-security measures one takes to protect their flock.
Rather presumptive to think you're busier than those you want to summarize for you. I'm sure most BYC members are at least as busy.
I have 6 flocks of chickens, 50 chicks in the brooder that need to be weighed and have their leg bands changed today, 50 eggs are due to hatch tomorrow and another 80 will be hatching at the end of the month. I have to finish 4 trap nests and reinforce some doors in the breeder coops so I can get birds moved in there to make room for the chicks in the brooder house.
It's nearing the height of bee season and I'm way behind building frames and hive bodies.
The orchard and berry patches aren't eating up much time but I'm way behind on the 1000 sq. ft. veggie and herb garden.
My car broke down yesterday and I've been working on it in the rain today.
Not to mention that my best friend and my brother are both dying.

You may not have felt your request deserved any pushback, just my opinion here, but if you think about it I don't believe you got any responses that would offend any but the most thin skinned.

On occasion when people ask questions here, if they don't get the answer they want to hear, they respond in a similarly offended manner.

I thought Leslie's first response was spot on. Just read the comment and move on. There was no further need for all the banter that followed.



The links are on almost every page on this thread. You don't have to read all 29 pages, just skim them for the links.

I've never criticized anyone for asking a question they didn't know the answer to but to ask others to do work that one thinks they're too busy to do but everyone else has plenty of free time?







I worked in the feed mill industry for the mills owned by the egg and broiler farms programming the mills as a contractor. I was amazed at the volume of rats, mice and roaches.
Open an electrical panel in the dead of winter and the circuits are covered with huge roaches keeping warm.

Ugh...roaches. Makes me shudder. Especially large numbers of them.

 

[MrsBachbach]

UGH!  I've read a few articles where they throw around the idea of AI being transmitted from creepy crawlies but you may be onto something with genetic diversity. My husband and I were batting around the idea of it being in the feed but you guys all make great points with other theories.  I'll be so glad (along with every other flock owner) when they finally determine the origin of this terrible disease.    

Well, the origin is birds. It's how it's being spread they haven't figured out. Or why commercial operations seem so susceptible. I find it interesting that all these experts never mention genetics in any of their theories. Must be something corporations do not want to explore. The creation of their own monster.

 

[TXchickenchick]

I just saw this thread and wanted to ask a question...I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere. My mother lives in North West/Central Arkansas. About 2 months ago (maybe? Time just flies!) she looked outside to see 2 men in full hazmat suits catching her chickens with nets. Obviously, like any crazy chicken momma would she went psycho on them. They were finally able to contain my barely 5' tall momma enough to tell her a turkey farm (i think she said) about two miles from her (maybe more...) had tested positive for AI and all poultry within a certain range was being swab tested. Thankfully everything was alright with her much loved little flock. But here is my issue. They could not possibly have had a fresh hazmat suit for every home with chickens and certainly not the nets they were using to catch them. So, if there had been chickens at one home carrying AI they could have potentially spread it to every other flock. How is this (or IS this) even legal? How can one protect their chickens when you are (I would assume) required to let irresponsible 'professionals' run amok? Or, and this is what I am worriedly assuming, would they have insisted on culling all domestic poultry within that area if even one case had been found?

 

[ivan3]

I just saw this thread and wanted to ask a question...I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere. My mother lives in North West/Central Arkansas. About 2 months ago (maybe? Time just flies!) she looked outside to see 2 men in full hazmat suits catching her chickens with nets. Obviously, like any crazy chicken momma would she went psycho on them. They were finally able to contain my barely 5' tall momma enough to tell her a turkey farm (i think she said) about two miles from her (maybe more...) had tested positive for AI and all poultry within a certain range was being swab tested. Thankfully everything was alright with her much loved little flock. But here is my issue. They could not possibly have had a fresh hazmat suit for every home with chickens and certainly not the nets they were using to catch them. So, if there had been chickens at one home carrying AI they could have potentially spread it to every other flock. How is this (or IS this) even legal? How can one protect their chickens when you are (I would assume) required to let irresponsible 'professionals' run amok? Or, and this is what I am worriedly assuming, would they have insisted on culling all domestic poultry within that area if even one case had been found?

Could be disposables. Full suits might be an additional State requirement as APHIS Protocols require foot covers "booties":

Full APHIS protocols (see 3.5): http://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_health/emergency_management/downloads/sop/sop_hpai_surveillance.pdf

ED: APHIS "outfitting": http://www.cfsph.iastate.edu/pdf/fad-prep-nahems-guidelines-ppe-personal-protective-equipment

For more info (this was put up for vets): https://www.avma.org/KB/Resources/FAQs/Pages/avian-influenza-FAQs-veterinarians.aspx

 

[chicknmania]

I would like to just clarify something guys.

My apologies if I insinuated that my time is more valuable than yours...or that I am more hurried than you all. I was trying to explain why I don't have time to sit here and read 29+ pages of comments on AI. I really just needed quick info...in and out. Tell me what I need to know, please, so I can protect my flocks without spending extra time reading over the minutiae of AI.

The very first response to my post was snarky. If you did not intend your comment to be snarky, than I apologize for my response. Tact is something that perhaps could be learned by both of us.
I was given the information I needed and I am thankful for that particular poster who took time to stop and provide that for me so I didn't have to spend extra time scanning through page after page. Do I know that the information is on "virtually every page"? Nope...I see 27 pages, scan the first...don't find what I'm looking for and figure I'll go ahead and network.

Because not for nothing but...we all know what happens when we enter Google and begin research. You begin looking for information on AI and next thing you know its 2AM and you've somehow followed rabbit trails that have led you to cat videos.

Or is that just me?

Anyways...I'm not a newbie to BYC. Been here for some time now. I'm not a brandie new chicken keeper, either. I've got over 40 birds in my flock right now and 10 eggs under two different broodies. But AI is new to me. I have a neighbor who doesn't care for his birds, which come visit us fairly frequently. We are also frequently visited by migrating birds of many kinds. So yeah, I'm a bit concerned on how to keep my flock healthy.

Regardless, I was given the info I need and no longer need to be on this particular thread. Thanks, again, to the person who took time to help instead of commenting about how I should look it up myself.

OMG enough ALREADY! Point taken, OK????? If you all want to continue to talk about this, start another thread! THIS just contributes to too many pages for someone else!

 

[chicknmania]

I just saw this thread and wanted to ask a question...I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere. My mother lives in North West/Central Arkansas. About 2 months ago (maybe? Time just flies!) she looked outside to see 2 men in full hazmat suits catching her chickens with nets. Obviously, like any crazy chicken momma would she went psycho on them. They were finally able to contain my barely 5' tall momma enough to tell her a turkey farm (i think she said) about two miles from her (maybe more...) had tested positive for AI and all poultry within a certain range was being swab tested. Thankfully everything was alright with her much loved little flock. But here is my issue. They could not possibly have had a fresh hazmat suit for every home with chickens and certainly not the nets they were using to catch them. So, if there had been chickens at one home carrying AI they could have potentially spread it to every other flock. How is this (or IS this) even legal? How can one protect their chickens when you are (I would assume) required to let irresponsible 'professionals' run amok? Or, and this is what I am worriedly assuming, would they have insisted on culling all domestic poultry within that area if even one case had been found?

that is terrifying. They didn't even knock on the DOOR???? I would have been on the phone with my lawyer, pronto. Not that many lawyers care to take on the Federal Government, anyhow.....Better still (and far more gratifying) I woulda been out there with shotgun in arms......I'm surprised though that they just tested them because from what I learned, here in Ohio, they'd just go ahead and kill them. I don't know if that's good info, or not, but that's what someone told me they heard from the USDA.

 

[TXchickenchick]

In their defense, they did actually attemp to (and thought they did) notify the owners of the chickens. That blame rests squarely on my father. My mom and dad are long divorced and have separate houses on the same property. They knocked on dad's door snd he failed to call her. The chicken's are 100% hers...though he loves them, too. But I guarantee if my mother had a shotgun they definitely would have been staring down the barrel while they explained themselves. She can be a feisty little thing! I suppose they coukd have been usung disposable booties But they had to use the same nets and there was no indication they sanitized them in any way between flocks. Of course, once she was out there she told tgem to put their stupid nets up and stop scaring her girls and called each one to her to be picked up. I, too, was surprised that they only tested them, and quite grateful. These are all old lady chickens and I hatched most of them for her many years ago. We are all extremely attached to these girls. I have hestd the same thing about mass culling.

 

[WthrLady]

Lots of false rumors flying around out there. Just sayin'

 

[mg15]

Mills Co. landfill says dead chickens could arrive in one week

UPDATED 9:10 AM CDT May 21, 2015
OMAHA, Neb. —Bob Glebs, the CEO of Loess Hills Regional Sanitary Landfill, says truckloads of chickens killed due to the bird flu could arrive at his site outside Malvern, Iowa, within a week.
Glebs says his facility has the necessary approval, but a contractor with the United States Department of Agriculture has required a few extra precautionary measures.
The facility will accept ten truckloads to begin the process, and each truck will be required to run through a secure sanitation station. The water will be collected and disposed of elsewhere.
Glebs says this is a bio-hazard situation, so each worker involved will be wearing protective suits and gear. The USDA will bring in a crew to monitor the process.
Before the birds arrive, Glebs needs to reinforce several roads and prepare a location on his property for the USDA to set up tents and trailers.
Glebs says his landfill is the only site in Iowa currently ready to accept bird remains. The animals will arrive in sealed bio-bags and be buried securely.
"It's a big deal and we want to do it right," said Glebs. "We have a plan."
Glebs says by the time the birds arrive, his company will have spent more than $200,000 in preparations and meeting all the required guidelines.
"We have decided we'd step up and help the state," said Glebs. "We knew there would be controversy. We were asked and we said yes, but we want to be sure that we're safe."
Glebs says he is now working with county officials, and together, they may try to provide meals for the workers at his site next week.
Before the birds arrive, Glebs says the truck-washing stations need to be in place, and they need to disperse 200 more truckloads of rock.

 

[WthrLady]

Every time they are touched or moved there is another chance of contamination. Wonder why they don't incinerate on site.