Let’s Talk About Bird Flu

[TOMTE]

My question is about dedicated shoes. The Ag Dept here in GA recommends having dedicated shoes that are only worn while attending the flock. I've read about people having shoe wash stations, wearing booties over the shoes, etc. I'm wondering what you all are doing.

I should do this...

I have a pair of boots and a pair of crocs that are my "coop boots", but I also wear them when I go out because I only own one other pair of shoes besides those.

Excuses, excuses!

I do need to give my crocs a good wash, though. They are incredibly poopy.

 

[Molpet]

My question is about dedicated shoes. The Ag Dept here in GA recommends having dedicated shoes that are only worn while attending the flock. I've read about people having shoe wash stations, wearing booties over the shoes, etc. I'm wondering what you all are doing.

I have town shoes and clothes that I take off as soon as I get home.

 

[No Coop No Problem]

Well, my neighbor is spreading untreated chicken/turkey feces on his pasture from the local poultry farm. There are several tons of it sitting in huge piles stinking up the place and attracting all kinds of birds, four-legged critters that will spread whatever is in raw fecal matter. This is how Bird Flu is spread: Poultry facilities not properly disposing the fecal matter.

Factory farming creates sickly, tortured animals without immune systems that are threatened by weak viruses.
This is a problem they create and the "solution" to this problem is one of complete madness: killing any and all healthy animals that may have been exposed to the virus

I know a man who had his entire flock killed by the government because it was reported that an "infected" vulture came within 200 yards of his property

This crazed, murderous response to bird flu ensures that no animal will ever develop an immune defense. It's evil madness

A far better solution would be outlawing factory farming and allowing ethically raised animals to develop a natural immune response. Humans have raised poultry for the past 10,000 years without needing to mass-murder entire flocks because of any illness

 

[Seaslug]

Humans have raised poultry for the past 10,000 years without needing to mass-murder entire flocks because of any illness

I am in no way defending factory farms: the large scale farming of animals either indoors or on tiny lots with concentrated feeds and antibiotics has ushered in all sorts of problems.
But even if you got rid of all of the factory farms today, you would not return to some idyllic worry free time. You can not compare the way that illnesses spread today to any other time in human history, no matter what may have been the case for the previous 10,000 years. Because, since the twentieth century, we have had a huge increase in the human population, compounded with mass human migration into previously wild areas and amongst inhabited areas. Illness are able to move from animal to animal and human to human faster than ever.
Our greatest weapon against single celled parasites, bacteria, and DNA replicating viruses should be human brains, but... we have overused our antibiotics to make pigs and cattle grow bigger, faster. We had two generations get vaccinated and now we forget how scary the diseases are that we can vaccinate against and are cavalier about getting vaccinated. Hell, in less than two years Covid-19 killed more Americans than every major foreign conflict in American history and was the deadliest pandemic in American history and yet it is being represented here as being over-hyped.

 

[eworms]

My country is on lock down for many winters now . Im not in the US, but we got hit by other types of bird flu before and by the H5N1 a few years before it the US.

Initially I followed the instructions of the government and kept my chickens inside the run. But the girls were not as happy and the soil in the run got dirty.
I decided to free range for a few hours each day again. Nothing happened with my flock.

I use the autumn leaves again to enhance the soil in run yearly. And make compost again with the chick shit and bedding material.

My idea : you cant stop a virus that is carried around the world by wild birds. The wild bird populations that got hit in the first years of this H5N1 flu got hit with dead’s but there numbers came back in the following years. A healthy flock that lives in a healthy environment (free ranging in lively gardens, forests and on meadows) can coop with diseases better than the poultry kept inside an overcrowded stable.

People with backyard chickens or ducks who report a possible infection with bird flu have their poultry killed. The ones who don’t often see that a part of their flock dies, but not all of them. Cant give numbers because these dead and survivors are obviously not reported. The messages I’ve read are from (unreliable) social media and forums.

This seems right to me. Culling the entire flock means that birds with resistance to bird flu die too. Breeding the survivors is how we can get robust animals that won't be so susceptible to illness. Gassing or baking the whole flock means the problem won't get better.

I would also support having more smaller farms as opposed to the huge operations we have today. Many smaller farms will lose birds to illness, but it gives a greater prospect of genetic diversity and different living conditions could give information about best practices to keep poultry healthy.

 

[Seaslug]

Good questions. Each state has laws on how poultry litter is processed.

Thanks for that information, theoldchick. The linked site referred to what I was think of, the mounded pile and piles, both of which can be spread on fields. I am interested in the bio-fuel production. I was not aware that people burned chicken waste; that is interesting.

 

[No Coop No Problem]

Culling the entire flock means that birds with resistance to bird flu die too. Breeding the survivors is how we can get robust animals that won't be so susceptible to illness.

I was learning about MRSA recently, a type of bacteria found in humans that's developed immunity to antibiotics. In the wiki article the following is said-

"Antibiotic resistance in S. aureus was uncommon when penicillin was first introduced in 1943..."
"By 1950, 40% of hospital S. aureus isolates were penicillin-resistant; by 1960, this had risen to 80%..."
"In most countries, however, penicillin resistance is extremely common (>90%)..."
"In the UK, only 2% of all S. aureus isolates are sensitive to penicillin."

So in other words, despite doctors specifically trying to prevent this from occuring, penicillin immune S. Aureus bacteria went from under 1% of the population to over 90% worldwide and even as high as 98% in some regions

This is the development of natural immunity in a population. Imagine if the farming industry attempted something similar with livestock: simply allow the survivors to reproduce

Nearly all S. Aureus bacteria is immune to penicillin now because the survivors reproduced

Natural immunity protects pathogens against the entire medical industry trying to kill them, yet this simple and obvious principle is ignored with livestock and the exact opposite is practiced with disastrous results

 

[BayBuzzard]

Thanks to everyone responding to this thread, this is a very annoying problem to have to deal with.

Personally, I have delayed starting my flock, even though their hut is built and ready to go.

The flu hit very, very close to where I live and very hard a couple years back. So we just said nope.

I’m ready now, as it seems most of the issues around here have abated. Thanks again everyone and have a great day.

 

[Noraaaaa]

I have zero knowledge on bird flu. But a dead woodpecker was found just outside my coop. I looked at it (yes ,I did pick it up and look all over) and found no injuries. Could this be bird flu? I don't have any way to prevent bird flu because 2/3 of my flocks are outside in a large run with wild birds sometimes in there, and 1/3 of my flocks are free rangers.

 

[Bawkbok]

Could this be bird flu?

Potentially, yes. Please report it to your local conservation department and give them the specimen if you still have it.
I am always on the look out for dead birds in our yard in fear a dog will find one and eat it or a chicken find one an peck at it.
We are inundated with Robins and all kinds of migratory songbirds right now. I am seriously thinking about hard lock down. I am finding song bird poop all over the yard. We do not feed the birds or provide water for them via bird baths. They cannot access the run. I would encourage you to deter the birds from getting into your run by using a garden mesh shade cover or something similar if it's not fully covered.