Help! Are mice a contamination risk in chick starter feed?

[jejo624]

Thanks for your comments, l.g. Yes, you do come off as more than a bit terse, and I don't see it as justified. Please don't worry about our chicks. We have precious, expensive, and rare variety chicks, and, no, we're not going to feed them the contaminated food. However, there wasn't a single post stating anything clearly about chickens catching disease from mice, and that's what my question was. As I write this, it remains unanswered in this thread. I have extensive background with hantavirus, and have performed and published biological research at a high-profile level with deer mice and other small mammals dating back to the discovery of hantavirus as the "four corners disease" in that geographical area, in communication with the Center for Disease Control, in the early 1990's. I lost a young colleague to HPS (hantavirus pulmonary syndrome) from exposure during unrelated wildlife research, where he contracted the disease from inhaling urine-crystal-contaminated dust from the floor of a wilderness line shack. Later, I was following a case at Cherry Creek Hospital in Denver when they successfully pioneered the use of oxygen tents to treat HPS victims, and the tide turned in a bit in understanding HPS.

So, when you started your post asking if I had ever heard of hantavirus, the answer is, "Yes." That's why I didn't ask if mice are a disease risk to humans. I already knew the answer to that one.

I asked if the mice could present disease problems to the chicks, specifically. And, the mouse we found was Mus musculus, not a deer mouse.

I was hoping to learn from folks in this forum. The answers provided by gracious responders, while indeed clear, did not address my question.

That's how it could have been more clear.

As far as the shelf life of feed always being less that 12 months in bagged feed, I've never seen anyone claim that before. I grew up a farm hand, and I'm quite skeptical about that. But, again, that wasn't my question. Please don't allow my question about disease risk to chicks via mice distress you any more.

Your terse tone, has, though, given me reason to reconsider my new membership in BackyardChickens: perhaps this is a community that I do not need, after all.

Peace, and may the Lord bless you.

Kris H. Johnson, M.Sc., D.F.E.S. (A.B.D.)
Hope, NM

 

[Fred's Hens]

OK, we're done here.

Thanks for participating.