Virulent Newcastle Disease or VND, Lots of Anguish, Little Solutions Offered

[SurferchickinSB]

Why are there such things as rooster flocks? I can imagine only one reason.

Yes, and from what I hear in my town this is what is causing the spread of this disease. The people that are doing the cockfighting also a lot of times work in the commercial poultry houses. They are tracking these diseases in on their clothing and shoes.

 

[SurferchickinSB]

I agree that is what the authorities are saying but I have doubts if it is true. If a human can bring it home from a feed store walking down the isle and putting a bag of feed in a cart then surely a fly or a wild bird eating or drinking out of an infected flock's coop can bring the disease. A fly spitting on chicken feed or scraps to eat or just walking around would do fine as a carrier. Wild birds can be carriers and/or infected without visible signs I have read.

But, for the sake of argument, if it is clothing or shoes, wouldn't the backyard flocks be fairly "safe"? Commercial flocks are not getting their feed at the local feed store. If they are slaughtering uninfected backyard flocks it makes no sense unless there is a connection between the commercial flocks, backyard flocks, and chicken fighting chicken barn employees.

Yes, that is what the connection seems to be! The majority of backyard chicken owners have nothing to do with cockfighting and do not attend those type of events or work in poultry houses!

 

[SurferchickinSB]

But what the authorities said in the SOB video was that they were there not in response to test results of her birds but in response to the fact that she was located 1/2 mile from a contaminated and depopulated commercial operation in one direction and 1/4 mile from an uncontaminated commercial operation in another. They were trying to secure the large uncontaminated flock.

Yes, huge areas were in a mandatory euthanasia zone. It didn’t matter if your birds were sick or healthy or anything! They all had to be euthanized with this zone.

 

[SurferchickinSB]

From what I'm reading the responsibility for this outbreak lies in the cock fighting community. Sounds like they need to come down hard on that illegality.

Exactly!

 

[SurferchickinSB]

We heard the rooster was one of several fighting roosters out of Tracy, that the owner lived in Hayward and took the rooster across the bridge to a vet in Redwood City. Had he worked with live poultry, we'd could be the next Riverside.

The owner was reportedly "extremely uncooperative." Well I bet. I hope a criminal investigation is forthcoming. Cockfighting needs to be not only a fireable offense for poultry workers, but a federal offense not equal to but greater than dogfighting due to the very real threat it poses to other birds. And if you don't even have the right to be here, that offense should make you go away. No excuses, don't wanna hear the long humint feature about the family. Look at how many have been harmed.

Yes, I have heard that same story out of my feed store and the workers at the feed store say that the main way that this virus is being passed along is by cockfighting and the same workers that also work in the poultry houses.

 

[SurferchickinSB]

Yes, I have heard that same story out of my feed store and the workers at the feed store say that the main way that this virus is being passed along is by cockfighting and the same workers that also work in the poultry houses.

I think if it was being spread by wild birds and flies, it would have reached my area by now. I am less than 100 miles away. The birds that were found with this disease were found in two or three different poultry houses in inland Los Angeles county.

 

[SurferchickinSB]

Already here. The wild birds by lake Erie have had it for over a decade. They have been naturally managed, though by mother nature.

There are different types of Newcastle disease and weaker strains. I think the VND acts very quickly and usually kills the bird within a few hours, so it can be spread very rapidly. It can be devastating to the poultry industry. I think they need to crack down on the sources, not just eradicate everything!

 

[roosterhavoc]

Well, with 90+ percent of these chickens being "backyard exhibition chickens" I doubt the cdfa/usda is talking about your laying hens since they have a different term "backyard chicken non-commercial egg layers" that's used.

The way I see it, owning a gamecock is sorta like having a pit bull or an AR. If you're dealing with one or two, that's your individual right. Beyond 20, the government needs to keep tabs on you.

Some people need government to run their lives for them too. Many people can’t think for themselves at all and believe what they’re told. Follow the herd mentality. It’s quite hilarious actually.

 

[IamRainey]

How many hobbyists take their chickens off their property? I'm not trying to be rude, but it seems to me that the mass killing of all chickens in an affected area is unnecessary. Especially the killing of chickens who test negative for the disease, or aren't tested at all.

Clearly those of us who are hobbyists by and large don't. But CDFA and probably others have lumped us together with the folks breeding roosters to fight to differentiate us from the large commercial operations who raise chickens for eggs and for meat. Those cockfighters (I have a different second syllable in mind...) DO take their birds to gatherings where some can and do spread the virus to birds who dispatch to dozens of other areas in and outside the quarantine zones. They deliberately hide their birds from inspection by CDFA authorities or move them when they anticipate an inspection. Furthermore, we have a group of folks who probably fall into what I'm calling the hobbyist group -- folks like us at BYC -- who has whipped up fear and now actively incites backyarders to hide and move their birds as well.

The case of vND recently diagnosed in AZ is the same strain as the one we're battling. That owner's bird was in contact with a bird from a quarantine area.

 

[IamRainey]

I think the VND acts very quickly and usually kills the bird within a few hours, so it can be spread very rapidly. It can be devastating to the poultry industry.

This is another thing I can't get a firm handle on. I'm reading official sources to try to get the information I rely on and repeat. I get that death comes rapidly after the onset of the visible phase of the disease but the duration of incubation period in which a seemingly "healthy" bird can pass on the contagion is very elusive. I've read anything from 2 days to 21. That's a pretty huge discrepancy!