HPAI

[Travlr]

Kind of surprised that no one has mentioned the trays of chemicals in front of every door to a chicken house and how everyone walks through that liquid in rubber boots going in and out.

 

[Nick Wagner]

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.

Give it time, it’s a confinement/feedlot issue. I was fixing a silo unloader at a dairy one time, after dark in the winter. Never felt so filthy in my life. Countless birds under the roof, the drops were constant, like being in a rainforest. And they fly to a flashlight. Typically until this, would climb silo with a flashlight in my teeth. Disconcerting to get hit in the face while climbing in the dark.

 

[4hfarms]

Jan. 17, 2025, 3:01 PM CST
By Berkeley Lovelace Jr.
As fears grow of a possible bird flu pandemic in humans, the federal government is pouring more money into the development of new vaccines, including an mRNA shot.

On Friday, the Department of Health and Human Services announced it’s providing about $590 million in funding to Moderna in part to fast-track the development of an mRNA vaccine that targets the strains of bird flu currently circulating in wild birds, poultry and dairy cows.

The money is in addition to the $176 million HHS awarded the drugmaker in July to develop a bird flu vaccine.

 

[WAnabee]

Whether its conspiratorial or not, what concerns me is putting all of our eggs into one basket so to speak. Having so much of the nations poultry supply concentrated into these locations, where a big viral outbreak can so easily take it all out seems crazy. A few years ago when the African swine flu broke out in China and killed over 1/3 of their breeding stock, I had to wonder also if there were any bad actors at play.

Even if there were no bad actors in these instances, who is to say there won't be in the future? Backyard flocks, and guys keeping a few cows and pigs might not be the most economical way to produce food, but at least there will be a chicken left somewhere (hopefully) if things got really bad. I would also throw meat packers into this category. There used to be a lot more small packers around (or so i hear) and during covid we saw that if two employees at a plant get sick that could mean 5,000+ head that don't get processed that day.

I'm not trying to dog on how anyone makes a living either, I feel for the farmers in these cases.

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

https://www.ksdairy.com/news/milk-testing-strategy
Pasteurization kills the virus but they want to look at the raw milk coming in. If H5N1 sets back the broiler supply the price of chicken, which people buy because beef is so expensive, will also be expensive.

 

[farmerjan]

Kind of surprised that no one has mentioned the trays of chemicals in front of every door to a chicken house and how everyone walks through that liquid in rubber boots going in and out.

In this area, there aren't the trays of chemicals... anyone entering a poultry house has to don NEW plastic boots that completely cover the footwear of someone going in... they have to be disposed of as the person comes out of the house. Some places also require changing of coveralls/etc.... In the warmer weather, some will even require that the person use a long handled brush to "wash down" their footwear also... and this was before this latest outbreak.