Okies in the BYC The Original

[Mawchickkidie]

well we have canceled Chickenstock for june the 7th due to the outbreak of the avian-flu in N.E. Arkansas we want to take extra precautions to protect the public and their chickens and I would hate for the BYC to get a bad rap if something were to have happen as a result of the stock so we have decided to reschedule if for either the 4th or the 11th of October which means countryroad and buckguy and grace and all of you who wouldn't have been able to make it might be able to now.

And that gives us hosting it more time to get more sponsers and donations, bigger trophies and such... I am so excited even now. We already had alot of really good stuff to raffle off and now we can add to it and maybe get more entries it would be really cool if we could get up to 100 birds entered in the show.

well everyone take extra care tonight and tomorrow with the storms rolling in and keep those chickens safe.
Night Ya'll Mawchickkidie

 

[GracefulBantams]

Cammie, well if you only have one tennie-wennie bunny, I see no reason why it shouldn't be inside

Oh, and, no storms here.... just really heavy winds!!


Carla, great to see you back around

Mawchickkidie, I'm sorry that you have to postpone the Chicken-Stock! I must say that I am with 'countyroad1330' on this one, though; I am actually glad (because I should get to go to this one!!!)

 

[countyroad1330]

Okie16, I think you should head out to the Cement auction tomorrow night!

Sounds like the majority of my chicken family was going to miss Chickenstock! Maybe we can all make it now. It is a bummer though, October is so far away! I hadn't heard about the outbreak, guess I should read up on it.

Ugh, wish I hadn't read about it.

Here's a link if anyone else really wants to: http://www.ohsonline.com/articles/63751/

 

[Buckguy20]

Carla, Thanks for the remonders I will do that with the bird I take.

Summerwinds, Good to have you back with us. I thought you were just out there lurking.
Hope to see you at Harrah.




Cammie, Have a blissful day tomorrow. May God richly bless your marriage.
Of course if I was there and they came to the part about "anyone knowing a reason why these two shouldn't united in Holy matrimony speak now or forever hold your peace" I would have to point out the he is allergic to chickens!
Just kidding. I hope you have a great life together.
May God Bless !
Monty
p.s.
I am just selling the white Marans and a few mixed hens.

 

[Buckguy20]

Quote:
While I appreciate your initiative to halt chickenstock because of a flu outbreak, I have heard nothing of an Avian Flu outbreak in the U.S. much less as close as Arkansas. Is this documented? I can't find anything on the internet about it.
What are the details?
Thanks, Monty

 

[DutchChic]

Quote:
While I appreciate your initiative to halt chickenstock because of a flu outbreak, I have heard nothing of an Avian Flu outbreak in the U.S. much less as close as Arkansas. Is this documented? I can't find anything on the internet about it.
What are the details?
Thanks, Monty

Countryroad posted a link to the story on the net. It's been on the news here....around 15,000 breeding hens have had to be destroyed. It's Tyson....one of their suppliers? It's not actually the full-blown Avian Flu, but a lessor strain....still a problem.

 

[GracefulBantams]

Buckguy, this is what I said on the Chicken-Stock thread, but I will repost it here:

An outbreak of this type of AI is not that uncommon, it is just like a bad cold that birds get. The H5N1 version is the one you hear about on the news, but it has yet to reach the states. So, as of now, even if your birds were to get AI, it would not be the mutated type (H5N1), and would not affect humans.

 

[okcarla]

hornbeck,

Welcome to the BYC Okies!

You might want to attend the auction in Cement this Saturday! I've heard of several people from Lawton and even as far away as Texas that come to that auction.

 

[hooligan]

Quote:
Here's what I posted over on the CS thread, since I know alot of ppl don't click on links to read stories...according to the USDA this sort of thing happens about 10 times a year in AR.
http://www.nwaonline.net/articles/2008/06/03/business/060408avianflu.txt
Also, Maw was asked by the OSU extention office to postpone it, we will need their support for chickenstock so it was important that she made the decision to wait. We were all so excited about it but now we just have more time to make it better.

Okie dokie, for those who are not link clickers, this is the story:
Tyson Breeder Farm Exposed to Avian Flu

A 65-week-old breeder flock on a West Fork poultry farm under contact by Tyson Foods Inc. tested positive Friday for exposure to a low-strain bird flu virus known as H7N3.

The low pathogen strain poses no human health risk. It is not the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus that has previously affected birds in Asia, Europe and Africa and resulted in human death, health experts said.

The flock of 15,000 was routinely tested prior to leaving the farm for processing last weekend as required by federal and state protocol. Old breeder hens grown in this region are typically slaughtered in Jay, Okla. and processed into soup meat, but these hens never left the farm, according Jon Fitch, director for the Arkansas Livestock and Poultry Commission in Little Rock.

Fitch said the USDA protocol in place to eradicate H5 and H7 strains of bird flu was tested and passed with flying colors in recent days, as the affected flock has been identified and destroyed. The incredible speed at which the outbreak was contained is essential to keep virus pathogens from mutating into more virulent strains, he said.

The Tyson Foods breeder flock tested positive for the H7N3 antibodies found in the blood stream, but tested negative for actually having avian flu, Fitch said.

Tyson Foods said that local testing and further testing at the USDA lab in Ames, Iowa found no indication the birds had the virus, and the breeder hens displayed no signs of illness prior to testing.


Frank Jones, a poultry expert with the University of Arkansas, said the state usually sees up to 10 such occurrences each year, particularly in the spring and fall as migratory geese and ducks frequent ponds located on farms like the West Fork site.

He said the wet spring weather likely aided in the longer presence of migratory geese, but temperatures consistently above 80 degrees help to kill keep most of the virus down through the summer months until the fall.

"It is believed that migratory geese could have shed the virus, which was picked up on the boot of a poultry worker and carried into the poultry house," Fitch said.

Once detected, the farm was put on quarantine and all farms within a 10-mile radius are being tested as precaution in compliance with the protocol. Tyson Foods said as a preventative measure, Tyson is also stepping up its surveillance of avian influenza in the area testing all breeder farms that serve the local poultry complex.

The breeder flock has been depopulated. The remains are being buried as another precaution although it is not required by the USDA, Fitch said.

Since the virus does not spread through eggs, chicks born from these breeders are not at risk for infection, experts said.

Litter from the breeder house will require special attention, Jones said. He expects that Tyson Foods will ensure the litter is properly treated.

The breeder flock is a small financial loss to Tyson Foods, but Jones said the loss was minimized by the birds being at the end of their life cycle. Breeder hens are an expensive item to poultry companies, costing them about $7 to $8 per hen at the time they start laying at 20 weeks.

He said Tyson Foods would have about $115,000 in the hens at 20 weeks and substantially more during their peak laying period. Near the end of the life cycle, the spent hens are worth less to the company.

He estimates the West Fork farmer will be back up and operational after the scheduled clean out and routine downtime associated with getting a new flock.​

 

[Dustin Biery]

The Tyson Foods breeder flock tested positive for the H7N3 antibodies found in the blood stream, but tested negative for actually having avian flu, Fitch said.

Tyson Foods said that local testing and further testing at the USDA lab in Ames, Iowa found no indication the birds had the virus, and the breeder hens displayed no signs of illness prior to testing.



The aforementioned is vitally critical that every knows and understands. The media is doing what they can, or so it seems to me, to get this stirred up as much as possible. This is only about 30 miles to the north of me. Sucks that Chicken Stock got postponed, but by then I will have better conditioned birds and more to show due to the fact that I am growing more out! Hope everyone is doing ok and weathering the storms ok.