I know there's been a lot of discussion about the NPIP testing lately and I've been following the same talk on another thread too. This came from the English Orp thread here on BYC. I just thought I would share this with you all, this is exactly why I choose not to be tested.
A sample of my birds are tested every three months for AI. The test is a titer test that will react to any strain of AI.
I do this because,I am in a waterfowl fly zone. Many farms do this now because it is a part of the NPIP program.
I think their point was to not knowinglyintroduce birds that could spread disease. It's one thing to say there is the potential for alot of birds to have AI, but another to to say yes, the bird(s) is/are infected.
I've been through this in my flock also, not to the extent of what happened at the USDA facility, but I lost some birds because of the "rules".
I had to give up some of my breeding flock last year because a couple of my older hens tested positive to pullorum. I repeatedly told the State that I vaccinate for MG, which causes false positives. The birds were older specimens that would most likely cause a reaction to titer tests because of the likelihood of e-coli infection that also causes a false positive reaction. These birds had been tested also in the previous years I have been NPIP certified and had negative tests. They didn't want to hear it. So I had to kill them and they went off to the lab for necropsy and further tests on their reproductive organs. Guess what, they came back negative. So I lost a couple of my very nice breeder birds for not. But rules are rules and in order to keep my status, I followed them.
