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

[raingarden]

https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/28/health/colorado-bird-flu-human-case-cdc/index.html

 

[Sonya9]

Because we can't put a significant part of the nation's food supply at risk because some people are fond of their pets.

I live in a chicken farming area. When I go to church tomorrow and shake my jr. pastor's hand I'm in contact with a chicken farmer.

If you think that you're not going to put other people's birds at risk when you have a sick bird you're deluding yourself.

That why the responsibility relies on the commercial poultry producers to practice strict BIO-SECURITY! Only THEY have control over their staff and the policies put in place at their facilities.

 

[BDutch]

… The USDA’s site says that rapid tests used to confirm AI cannot distinguish between HP and LP. Confirmatory tests can, and take between 5-10 days. Before I let anyone kill my pets, they’re going to test every single one and wait five to ten days for results. I wouldn’t care if had to stay on my property and wait for the results.

If they’re doing it any other way, it’s gross negligence.

Here in the Netherlands the DA (Food Authorities) cull all the livestock within a day after they tested positive on Ai. They are not waiting 5 days because they are afraid of spreading.

Because we can't put a significant part of the nation's food supply at risk because some people are fond of their pets.

I live in a chicken farming area. When I go to church tomorrow and shake my jr. pastor's hand I'm in contact with a chicken farmer.

If you think that you're not going to put other people's birds at risk when you have a sick bird you're deluding yourself.

I live in a chicken farming area too. Near to where a lot of good laying breeds like Barnevelders are developed. This chicken industry is the cause or at least one of the causes we have HPAI today. The unnatural way of keeping /growing feed causes many problems in health care. And several environmental problems too.

It would be better if people eat less (cheap) meat and eggs. And way more more vegetables.

The supercommercial chicken industry is NOT okay in many ways. It’s a kind of abuse of living creatures and the feed comes from fields that use way to much poison for a healthy environment and also uses gmo soy (rainforest issues).

Only the organic chicken industry is acceptable IMHO. But keeping organic chickens is no longer possible because of HPAI, the chickens may no longer range in the fields and grassland outside.

 

[3KillerBs]

That why the responsibility relies on the commercial poultry producers to practice strict BIO-SECURITY! Only THEY have control over their staff and the policies put in place at their facilities.

I refuse to accept that anyone's pets are more important than the food supply.

It would be better if people eat less (cheap) meat and eggs. And way more more vegetables.

If you want to choose to adopt a more expensive, more labor-intensive, restricted diet that's fine for you.

Telling others, particularly low-income people who absolutely depend on modern farming methods for their very survival, that they shouldn't eat from the safest, most abundant, most nutritious food supply the world has ever known is deeply insensitive.

I have personally been so poor that if my church hadn't fed us my kids wouldn't have eaten. The two protein sources that we could afford when we did have money -- feeding a family of 4 on less than $35US per week in the 1990's (about half what food stamps would have given us had we been eligible), were eggs and chicken leg quarters -- which were cheaper per lb than vegetables.

I have no patience with well-to-do people trying to rob the poor of their necessary food by turning agriculture backwards to suit their aesthetic and philosophical preferences.

 

[Folly's place]

There are not absolutes in this, it's possible to improve management towards better care of food animals, and still have affordable food available. And if more of us grew our own food, that would also help.
I've never been hungry/ food deprived, and know how lucky I've been to be born and raised here! People born and raised in very poor countries who face starvation, awful! And they are far from our livestock production methods, so really not part of the conversation about this issue in the USA. Much more basic problems in those places, not related to this.
Mary

 

[3KillerBs]

And if more of us grew our own food, that would also help.

Which is completely impossible for vast numbers of people who live in urban areas and difficult for even many people who live in the country.

I am in the country on several acres, but the nature of my sandy, nutrient-poor soil means that I can only profitably grow those vegetables that are either especially expensive or especially productive. In addition, I have to work and can't put in the daily effort of full-time farming that would be needed to coax greater productivity out of it.

Tomatoes and peppers, yes. Cabbage and lettuce, no.

Okra works. Beets don't.

I can grow muscadine grapes and peaches. I can't grow cherries.

The eggs from my chickens are not a profit compared to my former practice of buying the big box of 60 for $14 at Walmart. I *might* be breaking even selling them for $5/18-pack.

10lb bags of frozen chicken leg quarters are, despite so much inflation, still under 65 cents per pound.

The ability of poor people to eat above the barest subsistence level is a thing worth protecting -- far more valuable than even the dearest of pets.

 

[Folly's place]

I'm agreeing with you, Killer! Those of us who can grow food, should. Places where actual starvation has occurred, and is happening right now, can't also afford our 'factory farming' methods.
War and drought cause famine; food production is a huge problem many places, much more complicated than we can get into here. We can still do better for the critters we raise for food!
Mary

 

[BDutch]

I refuse to accept that anyone's pets are more important than the food supply.



If you want to choose to adopt a more expensive, more labor-intensive, restricted diet that's fine for you.

Telling others, particularly low-income people who absolutely depend on modern farming methods for their very survival, that they shouldn't eat from the safest, most abundant, most nutritious food supply the world has ever known is deeply insensitive.

I have personally been so poor that if my church hadn't fed us my kids wouldn't have eaten. The two protein sources that we could afford when we did have money -- feeding a family of 4 on less than $35US per week in the 1990's (about half what food stamps would have given us had we been eligible), were eggs and chicken leg quarters -- which were cheaper per lb than vegetables.

I have no patience with well-to-do people trying to rob the poor of their necessary food by turning agriculture backwards to suit their aesthetic and philosophical preferences.

There is something very strange going on if eggs and chicken leg quarters -- which are cheaper per lb than vegetables. Did you ever wonder how it is possible that chickens who eat veggies are les expensive than the veggies they eat?

Eating beans and such for proteins is way less expensive , where I live, than eating meat and eggs. And its healthier too. Most people eat too much meat for a healthy lifestyle.

If people eat a small portion of organic meat 2 - 3 times a week and vegan/organic vegetarian for 4-5 days a week the costs are about the same. But its means way less misery in the farming industry.

PS added the first alinea.

 

[3KillerBs]

Eating beans and such for proteins is way less expensive then eating meat and eggs. And its healthier too. Most people eat too much meat for a healthy lifestyle.

If people eat a small portion of organic meat 2 - 3 times a week and vegan/organic vegetarian for 4-5 days a week the costs are about the same. But its means way less misery in the farming industry.

That diet would kill me or my DH.

He's diabetic and I have a metabolic issue so we both have to eat low-carb.

More meat and fewer starches is actually more congruent with our evolution as hunter-gatherers.

No one has the right to tell people that they must live on a bare subsistence, beans and rice diet. You can choose it for yourself, but inflicting it on others by turning agriculture backwards is both arrogant and insensitive.

 

[BDutch]

That diet would kill me or my DH.

He's diabetic and I have a metabolic issue so we both have to eat low-carb.

More meat and fewer starches is actually more congruent with our evolution as hunter-gatherers.

No one has the right to tell people that they must live on a bare subsistence, beans and rice diet. You can choose it for yourself, but inflicting it on others by turning agriculture backwards is both arrogant and insensitive.

I’m not telling you what to do. Just making a point on the bad that is going on in industrial farming .

Sorry to hear you have a health problem.