I live on the pacific flyway and the California valley is a major overwintering spot for migratory birds which makes autumn, winter, spring a troublesome time of year. There is a vaccine available but it’s restricted to hatcheries and farms and only for use during outbreaks, which is problematic for us small hobby bird fanciers.General update:
It hasnt gotten any better the last days, more or less stable, maybe sliiiiightly worse. But weve started cleaning with saline morning/afternoon and are giving her some metacam again, slightly higher dosage this time (per ordination by vet).
I also contacted the place where we bought our geese. Its a conservation-park called "Nordens ark" which has got breeding programs for both wild and domesticated endangered species/breeds.
Our contact there also checked with her colleagues who recognised the symptoms from their wild Lesser white-fronted geese (Anser erythropus).
She mentioned more or less the same things weve already discussed and also Futichalmic and Synolux. In addition she gave some thoughts on the living environment and this got us thinking extra about this.
Because of a rise in bird flu we had to shut them in early this year and in combination with very damp and duck-y weather it might have become less then ideal in the greenhouse, where they live during the winter. It hasnt been BAD in any way, just not ideal. But colder temps are coming so that should better that situation a bit.
BONUS RANT:
Not sure about the US, but in europe bird flu is spreading from the factories via the wild birds, which forces ALL bird owners into a bunch of restrictions. Our birds cant be outside when there are "high risk" (like...november-april).
And instead of looking at the major problem (LARGE SCALE ANIMAL FACTORIES) they simply, in case of an outbreak, kill ALL birds at the site, sucessfully eliminating all possibility of breeding resistance in the birds. And then the circle begins a new:
Buy new birds, bunch them up inside together, wait for problems, kill them all, repeat
This has been the go-to "solution" for several years now.
The human circle of problemsolving
It’s a nonsensical approach in my opinion, factory farms do have a higher chance of mutating the virus given how many birds are kept in a confined space, but backyard poultry keepers come into more contact with their birds on a daily basis, so for the sake of public safety the vaccine should be available for our birds too, but it’s not.
Generally how most bird flu virus strains operate is the less lethal strains propagate better and eventually the more lethal strains die out or mutate into a more benign variant, hence LPAI usually being the more dominant strain than HPAI.
LPAI symptoms surprisingly appear worse than HPAI symptoms in many cases, often a bird will have facial swelling to some degree, will have mucous coming out of the mouth and nares, be snicking and sneezing, lack an appetite and be depressed, but after a few days to a week many birds recover. It primarily affects the respiratory system.
HPAI is more insidious. It attacks the inner organs and brain. Symptoms seem mild, almost benign at first with only inappetence and lethargy being noticeable, but then neurological symptoms begin to show, then sudden death, usually as a result of brain swelling. This can take hours to a few days.
Ducks are the primary reservoir for variants of both LPAI and HPAI, they can carry the variants for longer periods without symptoms, sometimes they never become symptomatic at all which makes them perfect spreaders. Viruses rely on a relaxed immune response to survive and reproduce, and ducks are very good hosts in that regard.
Geese unfortunately don’t really have much of an ability to resist HPAI, and raptors and galliformes like chickens especially usually have no ability to fight HPAI at all. For them to survive it they’d essentially have to have dna and an immune system like a duck or have a diminished immune response where their body isn’t really reacting to it in which case they are continuously mutating and shedding the virus, which has some very negative implications. There are around 40 cases of chickens who’ve survived HPAI, but compared to the billions that didn’t those aren’t great odds, and previous studies haven’t been fully conclusive as to why these chickens survived, further studies still show high morbidity and mortality to HPAI of chickens with the gene markers, so these genetic variations can help but HPAI is still almost always lethal.
https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/jvi.00820-25
If the bird can survive and stop shedding the virus, it becomes a genetically valuable asset evolutionarily, but if the bird somehow survives and is continuing to shed the virus the bird is a viral training ground where the virus could mutate and become a potentially more lethal or virulent form.
I don’t know what factory farms are like in your country but in mine they’re typically unsanitary, overcrowded, and populated with birds of very limited gene variation, creating a situation where pathogen transmission is rapid among already stressed birds with weak immune systems. The likelihood of any bird being the lucky one with a gene mutation that makes them resistant or resilient is incredibly low, but it’s a situation where viral mutation is incredibly high which is why they cull. The birds are pretty much guaranteed to die anyway from the virus and euthanasia is the only sensible choice, gas is a kinder end than the virus.
