LOS ANGELES county CA under bird quarantine :(

[Brahma Chicken5000]

They seem to call everything "backyard chickens", including cock fighting rings. It's frustrating to me to not understand whether the issue is lack of awareness by law-abiding chicken owners that birds shouldn't leave the quarantine area, or criminal activity in the form of cock fighting rings, where presumably the offenders aren't overly concerned about obeying rules.

The reason the disease keeps spreading through out California is that some chicken keepers continue to sell their birds knowing that they should not be selling them.

 

[Morrigan]

The reason the disease keeps spreading through out California is that some chicken keeps continue to sell their birds knowing that they should not be selling them.

And now spreading into states surrounding California. I haven't seen any good information on how they think an infected chicken got into Arizona.

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

And now spreading into states surrounding California. I haven't seen any good information on how they think an infected chicken got into Arizona.

I mean couldn’t an unscrupulous person take a chicken with them in their car and drive to Arizona from California without being stopped when leaving the state?

 

[h2oratt]

Looks like Arizona now has a case. Feds/state better figure out a plan b.
https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ou...p7pUO_T90MuVTCX9344StwKtk8JnagvnI8uferbZCw!!/

What I find interesting is they are almost all backyard flocks. If it’s true that it is being spread by cock fighters, I assume they just tell the reporting agency it is a backyard flock, which technically it is.

 

[h2oratt]

I mean couldn’t an unscrupulous person take a chicken with them in their car and drive to Arizona from California without being stopped when leaving the state?

Yes

 

[Morrigan]

Below is a link to an article discussing the outbreak. Among other things it says:

"The vast majority of Newcastle cases have been found in what USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Information Service (APHIS) refers to as “backyard exhibition chickens.” McClusky explains, “These are fancy roosters that they use for exhibition…and other reasons.” While it’s possible for this category to contain chickens that actually go to county fairs and other exhibitions, McClusky says, “Here people are raising backyard poultry for the purposes of fighting them.”

So, I was wondering earlier about what the designation "backyard exhibition chicken" meant, as there was as separate designation for "backyard" egg layers. Sounds like it is pretty much a euphemism for roosters raised to fight. I greatly fear this disease is going to lead to a slew of regulations, limitations and outright bans on the ability to keep backyard chickens of any kind.

https://newfoodeconomy.org/virulent...il&utm_term=0_75a28a0eaf-9b081aee42-511589085

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

Well my friend in the USDA has been deployed so I can reach out to her but I may not get an answer right away as she will be working. I’ll ask her if she knows how the bird with vND got to Arizona.

 

[Morrigan]

The government table, listed the Arizona bird as a "pet chicken", which is the first time the designation has been used this year. The Northern California bird (Alameda Country) was listed as "backyard exhibition" chicken.

https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ou...ease-information/avian/virulent-newcastle/vnd

 

[h2oratt]

Well my friend in the USDA has been deployed so I can reach out to her but I may not get an answer right away as she will be working. I’ll ask her if she knows how the bird with vND got to Arizona.

I am sure the chicken was driven there. I have a feeling that the cock fighting culture is quite big and they move the birds around a lot.

 

[Kathy Golla]

That new food economy story was informative. It’s good that reporters are starting to dig around.
The government sure seems to blame it consistently on the poultry density, never mentioning poultry shows.
I’m still not exactly getting the link from flocks that raise roosters for fighting, to a backyard chicken owner with 5 hens in suburbia like me.
I’m trying to visualize Riverside and San Bernardino, and the scenario in the article. One person has a flock of 400 roosters, next door has 200 roosters, etc. but how do you get to quarantining all of Los Angeles County? How does a small backyard flock in Beverly Hills catch vnd from a flock of 400 roosters from rural San Bernardino County on a large scale over a year? ( this didn’t happen, I’m just giving an example of rural vs suburban).
If you read McCluskys definition of a “backyard exhibition chicken” to mean fancy roosters, then one could extrapolate that almost the entire outbreak so far of 418 chickens have been from people breeding fancy roosters! That’s the first time I’ve heard that!
How do you link those birds to “pet chicken owners” and the quarantine areas and euthanasia zones?
I guess brahmachicken5000 and others said it, it has to do with selling and moving chickens. Then why penalize the folks staying put?