Official BYC Poll: What Are You Doing to Protect Your Flock From Bird Flu (H5N1) Infection?

[MarkButcher]

Many of these things I did before the AI anyway. My biggest change is that I now carry a can of disinfectant in the car and spray down my shoes and the floor/pedal area of my car before returning home.

Avian influenza (avian flu or bird flu) is a disease caused by infection with avian influenza type A viruses. These viruses spread naturally among wild waterfowl worldwide and can infect domestic poultry and other bird and animal species. Avian influenza viruses do not normally infect humans. However, sporadic infections of humans with avian influenza viruses have occurred.

With the current 2022 Bird Flu outbreak we would like to know: What Are You Doing to Protect Your Flock From Bird Flu (H5N1) Infection?

Place your votes above, and please share your thoughts in reply to this thread.

View attachment 3074118

For regular updates on the 2022 Bird Flu outbreak, please visit the CDC or the USDA websites.

Further Reading:

• Bird Flu: What You Need To Know
• Necropsy Labs, Necropsy Manual, & Necropsy Videos
• Just the facts... Avian Influenza

(Check out more exciting Official BYC Polls HERE!)

So, what happens? You might loose a few birds, in some rare instanses, it might ravage a flock here or there? Serious questions, and I don't mean to sound flip. Are my eggs still safe to eat? Does 95% of my flock soldier through the deal with a few sneezes, some runny eyes, maybe some more then ordinary diarrhea issues? Then we move on? I wouldn't want to transmit it to other people's chickens somehow, or have it transmitted to mine, but after the covid deal, I'm not going to overreact going to extreme measures either.. I'll probably get some hostile reactions to this, that's regrettable, but one thing I've learned over the last few years is, I'm not willing to overreact to every dire crisis warning that comes down the pike.

 

[chicknmania]

In my country the Avian Influenza is returning every winter for the past couple of years. Our government forbids free ranging every winter til halfway spring.

For the hobbyists there are not so much rules as for the the farmers because they don’t contribute much to the spreading. The chicken run doesn’t need to be covered.
I rather not close in my chickens all the time because it’s healthy for them to free range at least a few hours every day. All these years I didn’t come into trouble with it. I am lucky there aren’t any farms or other people around with chickens and only few geese and ducks fly over our property.

This years the Bird flu is more contagious. And when a chicken factory at the border of my town was infected with the bird flu, I decided my chickens needed to stay within boundaries. Because of the risk of contamination but also the concern that the authorities (food-police /destructors) would come to kill my flock, because I didn’t follow the prescribed rules.

Because the run is without any greens/grasses/herbs since I locked them up more often I wanted to extend the run temporally an made a fence around the old , small veggie garden and sacrificed it to the chickens. Put 1 meter high hwc around it. I never used chemicals or made any other changes.
The wobbly fence worked for a few weeks. But the grass is always greener outside and my lightweight Dutch escaped more often as time passed.

I hoped this bird flu would go away with all the sunshine we had in spring. But it didn’t. Not very far from where I live (15-20 km) is the heart of the chicken industry. And there is one outbreak after the other this last month. Altogether they cleared 2.9 million chickens in the Netherlands this ‘season’. The registrated clearings/kills are partly from infected farms, but also from farms without bird flu but just bc they are within 1 km from an infected farm.

I hate this whole situation. We just have too many chicken farms in the Netherlands. Many of the chicken farms are for the export of eggs and meat to other countries. The institutes didn’t start to develop a vaccine in earlier years because it’s not allowed to export vaccinated chickens. This year they did develop a vaccine but they still don’t vaccinate the chickens for the same reason.

The reason we have this bird flu is because the original bird flu (who was not a danger) developed into a monster in these factory chicken farms where chickens live in unhealthy and cramped conditions.

P.s. maybe they allow hobbyist and small scale farmers for the local market to vaccinate soon.

So sorry you are going through this! I agree that staying in cramped conditions and no free range is very bad. Our flock has always been very healthy for the most part, but we have some birds that can't stand confinement for very long. We confined ours for a month and I have never seen the dust that bad in their barn, and trying to clean only makes it worse. We've had two sick birds since the confinement; one died of a neuro issue, one we're not sure but we believe she is eggbound, and she was eggbound last week too. (She's a peahen). I let the flock out over the weekend because it was so hot and dusty in the barn. They were thrilled to be free! I weighed the odds and decided it was best to take my chances, our State fortunately has been one less impacted so far. I am still disinfecting my car tires if I am in certain areas before I come home, but otherwise, just monitoring the flu situation daily. I agree this flu situation has been made worse by the contributions of mankind.

 

[BDutch]

So, what happens? You might loose a few birds, in some rare instanses, it might ravage a flock here or there? Serious questions, and I don't mean to sound flip. Are my eggs still safe to eat? Does 95% of my flock soldier through the deal with a few sneezes, some runny eyes, maybe some more then ordinary diarrhea issues? Then we move on? I wouldn't want to transmit it to other people's chickens somehow, or have it transmitted to mine, but after the covid deal, I'm not going to overreact going to extreme measures either.. I'll probably get some hostile reactions to this, that's regrettable, but one thing I've learned over the last few years is, I'm not willing to overreact to every dire crisis warning that comes down the pike.

You don’t just loose a few birds if you get AI into youre flock. But many birds.

I don’t know how you’re government deals with AI. But here people with poultry are obliged to inform a governmental institution (national food and consumer products authority) if you have several certain death or a suspicion you might have AI in you’re flock.
This authority do a test to establish if the death have AI . The test is free of charge. But if you do have AI, all chickens and other poultry/waterbirds are killed.

I do know someone who free ranged her flock within boundaries. The flock numbered about 50 chickens. geese and ducks. She had several sudden death , for a few days on a row. More and more birds had health problems. Then she suspected it was probably AI. After a test it was clear it was AI and they killed all her birds.

 

[chicknmania]

So, what happens? You might loose a few birds, in some rare instanses, it might ravage a flock here or there? Serious questions, and I don't mean to sound flip. Are my eggs still safe to eat? Does 95% of my flock soldier through the deal with a few sneezes, some runny eyes, maybe some more then ordinary diarrhea issues? Then we move on? I wouldn't want to transmit it to other people's chickens somehow, or have it transmitted to mine, but after the covid deal, I'm not going to overreact going to extreme measures either.. I'll probably get some hostile reactions to this, that's regrettable, but one thing I've learned over the last few years is, I'm not willing to overreact to every dire crisis warning that comes down the pike.

If you bother to research AI, not only this pandemic but overall, you will see how very serious and deadly it is. Heartbreaking to those of us who love our birds, because either they suffer before they die while we watch helplessly, or we get to deal with them being culled by the USDA. It's alarming to me how many people think this is not much to worry about. Not that you can do any more than what you are able to protect your flock, and then the rest is out of our hands...

 

[calboy147]

If I tried to tarp their run, any wind would scare them senseless and any rain would cause the entire thing to collapse.

My girls don't free range because I don't want to accept the risk. We have a hawk's nest on our property and my house cameras have caught fox and coyote at night; I've also seen a red fox roll up during the day.

The past two years have been a great reminder that the risk profile matters. If every wild bird carried the deadly flu, my flock would be locked in my barn. But - according to the data - the chances of them getting anything from a stray bird turd are slim to none, so I'm not going to lock them inside and make them miserable for months on end.

And also, the risk of them killing each other while locked in a space that's wing-to-wing 24/7 is greater than the bird flu. So, they'll keep living their happy chicken lives, unaware that the sky is falling. And if it does, I'll play the lottery, because those would be some serious odds.

I did stumble on to some clear corrugated roofing; enough to cover both my runs. Luckiest little accident my flock ever had. Keeps out rain, hawks, and birds without blocking the sun in winter.

 

[RubelliteRose]

So, what happens? You might loose a few birds, in some rare instanses, it might ravage a flock here or there? Serious questions, and I don't mean to sound flip. Are my eggs still safe to eat? Does 95% of my flock soldier through the deal with a few sneezes, some runny eyes, maybe some more then ordinary diarrhea issues? Then we move on? I wouldn't want to transmit it to other people's chickens somehow, or have it transmitted to mine, but after the covid deal, I'm not going to overreact going to extreme measures either.. I'll probably get some hostile reactions to this, that's regrettable, but one thing I've learned over the last few years is, I'm not willing to overreact to every dire crisis warning that comes down the pike.

No, unfortunately this strain of AI is not only very contagious, it also has a high mortality rate. From a recent news report "According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, HPAI infections have a 90-100% mortality rate in chickens, affecting multiple internal organs and causing death within 48 hours. "

 

[MACCanadianCoop]

There have been two cases of flocks with HPAI very close to when I am in recent weeks. Birds who were "fine" and then a few hours later, dead. It's heartbreaking. In hindsight, it makes me glad I'm not getting my birds until September. I was going to do hardware cloth over the top of my run, but now I'm doing a solid roof instead.

 

[froggyphore]

i’ve been curious, is there any info on when this outbreak is likely to end? in the summer where i live it gets to be 80-97 degrees most days. would that do it in?

to me it’s strange to only be learning about this disease because of this outbreak. i did a lot of research when i first got chicks and never heard about it. i thought mareks was the biggest concern but this seems even more dangerous since you can’t control the biggest risk factor, and theres not even a vaccine.

 

[igorsMistress]

I have shoes specifically for my yard, mostly because poop happens. I usually order my feed online and use curbside pickup so I’m not walking around in the store. I keep my flock in the coop until later in the morning so wild birds don’t raid the food. I plan to put up a temporary run by fall.

 

[chicknmania]

i’ve been curious, is there any info on when this outbreak is likely to end? in the summer where i live it gets to be 80-97 degrees most days. would that do it in?

to me it’s strange to only be learning about this disease because of this outbreak. i did a lot of research when i first got chicks and never heard about it. i thought mareks was the biggest concern but this seems even more dangerous since you can’t control the biggest risk factor, and theres not even a vaccine.

I would suggest you just monitor the USDA tracking sites and any others that you can find, and you will see how the risk is affecting your State, then you can make your own decisions. In our State I know the zoos have said they're keeping their birds in til around the first of June, but of course it's wait and see how the virus progresses, or not. We haven't had any documented cases in our State for a couple of weeks, although it is still nerve wracking as it is all around us in neighboring States. We did let our flock out last weekend, simply because it was too hot for them to be in our barn, and they (especially our peafowl) were beginning to suffer from the heat, dust, and lack of freedom. I continue to monitor the flu status every day, and if I feel it is becoming too much of a risk, I will revisit confining them again. Also praying daily for the safety of our flock and everybody else's because the virus strikes are so random. It's amazing to me how many of our neighbors have little concern or knowledge about AI, although it's still a farming community..for another year or so anyway.