my experience with the TVMDL

[blue90292]

so the guy came yesterday to test my flock for texas pullorum-fowl typhoid so that i could get a certificate to be able to sell my chickens outside of my property.

first i want to say, what a nice nice man.

he parked his truck outside of my property gate. put on disposable lab wear and boots, looked around at my set up and birds and decided which one's to test. i only have about 30 grown chickens (but lots and lots of babies) so he took about 10 or so of those grown guys and tested them. he tested the silkies that i got from louisiana, he tested those from the swap i went to last october and just for good measure he tested some from mcmurray. everybody tested negative.

he was very informative and was nice enough to stick around for almost an hour later as i bombarded him with questions about my set up, food, bird color, personalities, etc, etc, AND etc. he was very patient with me and answered every question i had. he's also sending me information about the two shows, the one in college station and the one in beaumont and after letting him know what i had hoped to accomplish with my birds, gave me information about breeders around the houston area who could probably help me, not to mention, he said i could call him if i had any other questions later on.

i also asked him about getting my birds tested for the flu. he said there's nothing for me to fear, that he get's his flock tested. it's just a little cumbersome/time consuming.

all in all the experience was very nice and am glad i had my birds tested. i felt i acquired a new friend with a wealth of knowledge i probably would never know all of, even if i had birds for the next ten years.

 

[justusnak]

blue....Im so glad to hear that he went through those safety precautions.....Sounds like a very nice,a nd knowledgable ( sp?) person. That was great of him to stick around and answer your questions, and to give you all the info. Congrats! Glad it went good for you!

 

[Rafter 7 Paint Horses]

Congratulations!!!!
It wasn't so bad, was it? I had forgot to mention about the suiting up that they do, and they should spray their shoes and the tires of their truck if they drive onto your property. They do take precautions on transporting anything from place to place.


Jean

 

[robin416]

The whole reason this has become so stressful is those that are afraid the chicken police are going to show up on people's door steps and destroy their birds. All it takes is one person on the net talking about what a nightmare their experience was or the media talking about bird flu and culling flocks to make something that is pretty routine a frightening experience.

So glad it went as well for you as it has for many thousands of others. As long as folks can get over their fear it should help control or elimnate serious diseases. My District Vet told me they had not found a positive test in quite a while. Its this type of testing that has helped in protecting our flocks.

The one thing I never want to face is to sell a bird to someone and find out that it had some contagious disease and wreaked havoc in their flock. If I can so whatever is necessary to not have that happen then it makes me more comfortable in selling my birds.

 

[blue90292]

robin, you are very right.

i figured there's enough bad news out there, a good experience needs to be told so those new to poultry won't have the kind of fear i did.

i did ask him what would have happened if any of my birds showed positive. he explained to me and also gave me paperwork on what the proper procedure is.

i'd like to share with ya'll what would have happened IF my birds tested positive for pullorum-typhoid.

if he had found any that tested positive, he would have put a hold order on my flock, found up to 5 birds that test positive to take back to their lab for culturing purposes where they would retest the birds.

if any come up positive again, all movement of poultry and poultry products including baby birds and hatching eggs would have to cease and a quarantine will be issued for my flock.

then there are three options to be released from quarantine:
1. flock must receive 2 consecutive negative tests at 21 day intervals from date of the positive test, or
2. dispose of all birds and products, clean and disinfect premise and remain free of all poultry for 90 days.
3. remain under indefinite quarantine - no movement of birds or products.

i guess i should have asked him this but didn't think it since my birds came up clean, but from option three, i figure you can keep your birds, you just can't sell them or their babies or eggs anymore. in a way, this may help those in fear that someone would come and cull their whole flock if a bird came up positive. but as you can see from option 1. you can cull just those that come up positive (since there are no cures for the typhoid and you don't want it spreading to your other birds) and as long as the 2 consecutive tests after that come up negative, you can keep the rest of the clean flock.

 

[allen wranch]

Michele,

That is good news.

The first time I was tested, the tester told me that if ANY birds came up positive that were sent to the lab, the whole flock would be depopulated.

 

[robin416]

Carla, do you think its possible Texas is softening on their approach to disease in backyard flocks and automatically demanding they be culled?

That was one of the things I couldn't understand about automatic culling of birds that survive an illness. They been exposed, have the antibodies and are tough enough to survive they should be saved for building resistance, not destroyed.

 

[allen wranch]

Robin,
I think it depends on the disease. In some illnesses, if the bird survives it becomes a carrier.

 

[robin416]

Well, either I was buying into the fear mongering too or some of what I read about Texas destroying birds with any kind of disease even if it did not mean they were carriers or Texas really is/was very heavy handed in how they dealt with any poultry disease.

I know things like ILT are controversial about whether to cull or not. some states do some don't. I still don't know what I would do if it was ever found in my flock.

 

[Wes in Tx]

Robin here is a list of reportables in Texas and most of them they do cull for.

Avian influenza * - Orthomyxoviruse

Avian infectious laryngotracheitis * - Orthomyxovirus, herpesvirus
Avian tuberculosis * - Mycobacterium avium serovars 1,2
Duck virus hepatitis * - Picornavirus
Duck virus enteritis * - Herpesvirus
Fowl typhoid - Salmonella gallinarum
Highly pathogenic avian influenza (fowl plague) – Orthomyxovirus (type H5 or H7)
Infectious encephalomyelitis * - Arbovirus
Ornithosis (psitticosis) * - Chlamydia psittaci
Pullorum disease - Salmonella pullorum
Newcastle disease (VVND) - Paramyxovirus-1 (PMV-1)
Paramyxovirus infections (other than Newcastle disease) * - PMV-2 to PMV-9

It all has to do with Tyson, Perdue, Pilgram and Ideal and the other big boys in the chicken industry in this state. They really are the ones that make the laws the way they want them. $$$$ talk big time in this state.