HPAI

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HPAI is characterized by its rapid spread and high mortality rate.

can also infect wild birds...... without showing symptoms.

often H5N1 in humans, causes bird flu.

Now infects other farm animals



So...

Happened to this farm first, no others..... where did it come from...
Wild birds my a$$.

Sounds like a load of crap. If they would have such a flu, they wouldn't need to extinguish flocks. They would die if they were infected, no need to kill them all.

So destroy them all just in case? Sounds like what happened with covid. Sick person, slam them full of experimental drugs that killed all the test rats. What could possibly go wrong. We seem to keep following the pattern because we didn't learn the first time. Just 14 days to slow the curve, right?
 
Agriculture is big in Georgia. And poultry is almost 50% of the ag production in the state. Only 6 COUNTRIES produce more broilers than the state of Georgia produces. So, this is big.

Maybe do some more google searches. You have your facts wrong! These are big operations. One farm is a hen operation that produces eggs that go to the hatchery for producing the chicks to go into the broiler houses. Another farm produces broilers. Both were confirmed to be infected this week. Broiler farms are routinely tested for the bird flu. The birds are killed to attempt to get the infection stopped. Big farms have lots of risk for spread. Multiple houses on a farm with workers moving from house to house to do the daily work. Multiple tractor trailer feed trucks delivering feed to the farms multiple times per week. These same trucks deliver from a feed mill to multiple farms. The driver must exit the truck to deliver the feed. The chicken company field man makes multiple visits to the farms. All these have risk of spreading any disease. Chicken houses have lots of big fans to remove the moisture and ammonia that is present in the house. Those fans can spread disease.

So, when disease that can devastate the farm economy is found, the plan is to euthanize the birds in the house. I believe the broilers will remain in the houses and be composted in the house. I believe all chicken operations within 10 km were tested today for the bird flu. The lab is now overwhelmed with the volume of tests.

The loss of the hens will result in fewer eggs and chicks to go into houses for the next flocks. These chicken farms are expensive to build. Typically with a 15 to 20 year mortgage. Farmers may have a longer period of time between flocks. There will be stress and anxiety to make the mortgage. Getting the spread stopped is essential to the farm economy.

Letting them die from the disease in the houses would be inhumane. Feed delivery will stop to minimize the spread by the trucks. If any survive, they can't be caught, hauled and processed. Euthanize all of them at once is the humane way. They won't be getting any experimental drugs. They were euthanized today.

Why not let the crap stay in the chicken house?
 
Same scenario in VA... an official message that the first confirmed case in a broiler flock in Accomack Co Va... this week. No notice that all poultry activity stopped... just to practice diligently, safe biosecurity on the farm... Put out by VDACS office. Farm was depopulated on Jan 16th.
Was in the store this morning and heard a comment that the price of eggs would be going up Monday... didn't say why...
 
I think you picked up on the wrong tone of my statement. Wasn't complaining about them having to euthanize them. Never said let them all die of disease. I totally agree on your whole post.
I understand the test, and the lack of the next generation of and the eggs sales of to make food shortage or sky rocket price. It's kinda my point.

I asked first where it came from. It just appears in a healthy flock? Never said to Just happened to the two largest farms that happen to produce the largest amount of eggs and broilers. 50% of GA AG is due to fowl. Some say the state of Ga would be 7 if it was ranked as a country.
Get it yet?

They get routinely tested all the time...

Btw my facts were not disputed in your post. Please tell me where they are wrong. Google is ok sometimes, I see.

You let your emotions run on this one without understanding the post.
Sorry for your confusion.
 
I notice when an H5N1 outbreak occurs in a backyard flock, the owners invariably have not just chickens but free range ducks. They go down to ponds where the wild ducks and geese gather.

Its gotten really bad on California dairies. I don't have waterfowl but wild birds migrate through here so now I keep my (6) hens in the henhouse.
 
I asked first where it came from. It just appears in a healthy flock?
Would it make any difference if it first appear in an 'unhealthy' flock?

Illnesses of every sort, across all species have historically been known to show up in perfectly healthy communities.

If you are proposing that someone intentionally 'planted' the sick bird there, then it's upon you to provide proof of it.
 
I notice when an H5N1 outbreak occurs in a backyard flock, the owners invariably have not just chickens but free range ducks. They go down to ponds where the wild ducks and geese gather.

Its gotten really bad on California dairies. I don't have waterfowl but wild birds migrate through here so now I keep my (6) hens in the henhouse.
I heard from a chicken company vet that some of the upper midwest chicken/egg farms used large ponds for their water supply. He said that geese and duck crap in those ponds was a very high risk for disease transmission. Here, chicken houses get water from deep wells or water utilities for the most part.

This virus came from the same places as previous viruses and disease. Smallpox, Ebola, polio, swine flu, hiv, measles, and so forth. Carried by man, birds, wind, storms, water and such. Origin? Same as previous viruses and diseases. They started somewhere and spread.

We need to take measures to minimize the spread and get it under control. And help those affected - like the chicken farmer with $2 million of debt and loss of his income.
 
Would it make any difference if it first appear in an 'unhealthy' flock?

Illnesses of every sort, across all species have historically been known to show up in perfectly healthy communities.

If you are proposing that someone intentionally 'planted' the sick bird there, then it's upon you to provide proof of it.


Usually things that are taken care of aren't sick in multiple locations at the same time. Just as history has suggested, the cleaner you are the healthier things, animals, people, are. I would expect a house that has regular inspections to be better taken care of than someone that cant afford it of doesn't have access to care. Then again there has been free range chickens surviving for thousands of years, even on farms with ponds, lakes, rivers. This is a relatively new sickness for multiple species.Hence the to many pages of craigslist cattle we all seem to be against.

I'm not proposing anything, but a duck is a duck. Pun intended... wrong thread for that. Good on you guys and gals for pointing out the oddities of this loss of food production.
 
Usually things that are taken care of aren't sick in multiple locations at the same time. Just as history has suggested, the cleaner you are the healthier things, animals, people, are. I would expect a house that has regular inspections to be better taken care of than someone that cant afford it of doesn't have access to care. Then again there has been free range chickens surviving for thousands of years, even on farms with ponds, lakes, rivers. This is a relatively new sickness for multiple species.Hence the to many pages of craigslist cattle we all seem to be against.

I'm not proposing anything, but a duck is a duck. Pun intended... wrong thread for that. Good on you guys and gals for pointing out the oddities of this loss of food production.
I'm not very knowledgeable on the commercial poultry business as there are none in this area. Wife's stepfather works for a chicken company in OK. From my understanding the farms have contracts with one of various companies
There are thousands of birds in those houses and they have to be maintained and upgraded adequately to specifications and have disease control measures in place to maintain their contracts.
There is too much invested and at stake to not try to keep the birds healthy. Unfortunately because of the housing if a bird is found dead or sick then it's almost definitive that other are too and many exposed.
The main disease vector for this has been the wild migratory birds from my understanding. A few years ago, I had ordered some chicks from a big well known hatchery. I'd ordered several different kinds, and received notice that sone of the breeds on my list were going to be unavailable. The hatchery gave a video explanation via social media,
They raise some of their chickens themselves and have other farm to raise some of them as suppliers.
The virus was found in several of the barns at different locations. One breed was a strain that had been being bred for over 100 years. All of the chickens were destroyed but the eggs were deemed safe. They did not offer any of that breed for sale that year as they had to replenish their breeding stock first. During the video the hatchery quoted sone statistics about how many farms birds etc had been affected in their state at that time and also stated the number of known incidents of disease outbreaks in backyard flocks as well,
As others have stated lots of ways to carry the disease to poultry barns.
I also wonder about small birds like english sparrows and starlings as vectors that are very common and might could get into barns
 
I have no doubt destroying a bird farm is devastating, even the backyard flock. I have raised birds in the past and know the cost of feeding and such, but far from a big operation such as these. Just done local sales.
Don't mind me, I question everything fishy sounding. Two LARGE farms in the same area and now in other states. I just assumed with all the technology we have...? We really haven't figured it out yet?

I believe we have. But some make the money and others pay........
 
There is nothing "fishy" sounding about this event to those close to the industry. This bird flu virus is sort of "new", but disease outbreaks in the commercial poultry industry are not new and not unexpected. There is a disease referred to as "LT" that will wipe out a house quickly, cause quarantines, cause increased biosecurity measures, stop the cleanout of houses and the spreading of litter, cause economic hardship and anxiety. LT is an old viral disease that has caused havoc for years.

As far as two "LARGE" farms, they are large relative to overall poultry operations that include backyard flocks and small operations. Relative to the commercial broiler industry in Georgia, I don't think these were exceptionally large. People not close to the broiler industry would probably consider most every broiler farm as "large". It's all relative. As to the "two", it will end up being more than two. It spreads quickly. This discovery will put everyone on high alert and force better compliance with the biosecurity rules. Compliance gets a little lax when things are just rolling along.

I believe it is figured out. Without any conspiracy or secret dealings. The broiler industry in this area is large because it gives the farmer the best chance to make a living on the farm. Generally better economics for the little guy than trees, cows, row crops and such. Does not take a lot of acres. Not without risk. But there are reasons it is so big here. Money for the big chicken companies, money for the growers, money for the workers in the industry at all levels.
 
It is a double whammy here as many Dairy farms also have 1 or 2 poultry houses.... and this HPAI is also the same virus that has been detected in Dairy cattle nearly a year ago...
This is not something that 99.9% of the farmers want to deal with and although some times they get a little lax... most are very conscientious about bio security due to the possibility of loss of a house of birds, the possibility of quarantine and now the possibility of cross infection of the dairy cows....
Maybe it is a BIG CONSPIRACY against farmers, I certainly hope not... but regardless... it is a serious thing and there have been countless studies done on the amount of diseases carried by wild waterfowl and birds... and they travel distances and so can spread it in a heartbeat.
 
I don't doubt any of the issues or posts about the farms or sickness being real. You all were offended by me restating your facts. Then defended the bird flu.... and how bad it was. I didn't doubt any of it. Even posted multiple times about the severity of it.
Now conspiracy, because I questioned multiple large houses in different states that contracted this flu all at the same time.
Y'all are twisted!
Like Stockholm syndrome.
 
"I was wondering about why dairy has been a locus for the bird flu and not beef. I wonder if beef feedlots have more problems, come to think of it."

When dairy cows are sick it is obvious because they are milked and production drops precipitously,
 
Dairy is direct to consumers with very little cooking involved. Also youngsters are more likely to drink milk.
 
Before I retired there was a couple of big chicken farms I worked with. The biggest one had 950,000 layers. They had some real serious bio security. The men who worked in one chicken house couldn't even eat lunch with the guys who worked in another chicken house. Dairies I could just drop in. The chicken farms were by appointment only. And even then I was often met in the parking lot and not let into the office building.
 

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