Backyard flocks at risk if bird flu hits

[lacy]

This is the title of an article that appeared in the Thurs. Apr. 20 issue of the Omaha World Herald. The 1st sentence of the article is, "Free-range chickens and small backyard flocks will be at greatest risk if bird flu reaches the United States, health officials said Wednesday." Further in the article it states, "Most of America's chickens come from big commercial farms that keep birds indoors and are well protected against the spread of disease." It also states, " Officials also said they would begin killing off flocks large or small that are suspected of having the virus, even before tests are completed."
This just strikes me as wrong or at the least mis-informed. Apparently the author of this article [none listed] isn't aware that confinement operations are breeding grounds for disease. That's why, whatever animal is being raised in such, are pumped full of antibiotics. By the way, has any official said anything about compensation if your flock is destroyed? Or are we just supposed to suck it up?
I don't doubt that a pandemic can happen, but the cases of chicken to human transference have occured because of the extremely close contact of such. I don't house my chickens in my home nor do I live in the extreme poverty that these cases seem to have occured.
Overall this seems to predict the death of free range and backyard flocks, much to the advantage of commercial producers. This is purely my personal opinion.

[Bellepepper]

Lacy, I'm sure someone somewhere considers our 2 dozen hens a threat. Have already decided that in the event of a pandemic, we'll then move our hens into the shop. At least a few of them. They say that the flu is spread by wild birds. Sorry to say, our peacocks will be the first to go.

[Cliff Timmons]

So much for free-range huh?

I'll wait until it hits Arkansas before I panic.

[dirtundernails]

Why don't we apply the same logic to everything? :rolleyes:

Rampant greed and stupidity seems to be very dangerous disease, spread mainly by money changing hands among corporate and politico types. Why should we wait for the "tests" to come back, lets just nip it in the bud before it becomes pandemic, and spreads to the general population. All in the name of national security of course.... :p

HOD

[mrtomatoexpres]

lacy hi ever watch freespeechtv or the best linktv thats what they talk about bird flu,madecow,gmo. nowing this country its probly here now. :eek: :mad: say no to gmo

[dirtundernails]

Ummm, DUN and I were sitting outside, watching the chickens and something occured to us. . . .

Has anyone ever seen a wild bird co-mingling with their chickens?

We have never seen a wild bird come near ours.

Hod.

[Cliff Timmons]

Ummm, DUN and I were sitting outside, watching the chickens and something occured to us. . . .

Has anyone ever seen a wild bird co-mingling with their chickens?

We have never seen a wild bird come near ours.

Hod.


Oh the wild birds are sneaky. You have to watch'em like you have a teenage girl! <grin>

No, I've seen redbirds and doves and other birds eating corn chops with the chickens. We even have deer and turkey come up and join in.

[SunflowerMeg]

lacy hi ever watch freespeechtv or the best linktv thats what they talk about bird flu,madecow,gmo. nowing this country its probly here now. :eek: :mad: say no to gmo

I'm not sure I quite understand what you mean by "knowing this country, it's probably here now"??????

I kind of resent that remark. How much mad cow have we had here? Bird flu? Of the millions of people who live in this country, how many cases have there been? Seems to me we must be doing something right, huh??? Now, what you really need to be worrying about is the rising rate of obesity and diabetes in this country because sitting down to a healthy meal and getting exercise is at a high-threat level of becoming extinct.

[mrtomatoexpres]

i agree with you sun but linktv had a show madcow 1,2. on the show they said you can't feed cattle part back to cattle. you can feed the cattle parts to hogs and chicken, but you can feed hog and chicken parts to cattle. does that make sents :confused: thats what i ment sorry if i afended you :)

[zebraman]

Hey Guys;This reminds me of when I was on the "LUCY Bayou in Southern TX.near Houston.I was there catching baby Aligators.Anyway there was this bait shop and the two old Geezers that ran the place were wearing "Crocheted hats with Beer Can Labels in them and they had a chalkboard nailled to a tree in the gravel parking lot.
It was advertizing that they had Pecans for sale,However the spelling was Pea Cons.You gotta love the South.

[dpindel]

I don't know anything about raising chickens but this thread really caught my attention. I've been hearing about the threat of Avian flu for a few years now and it scares the heck out of me. Though I wouldn't put it past the commercial poultry producers to use it to their advantage. I hope all your birds stay safe and healthy and out of the hands of the big guys.

Sun- I agree with you on the obesity and diabetes 100%. This country is F-A-T(how's that for a gross generalization).

As far as the Mad Cow goes- keep in mind that the disease take 10-15 years before it can be detected in the human body after it is contracted and it manifests in the brain similarly to Alzheimers creating the possibility of misdiagnosis. So we may not be hearing about Mad Cow but it may already be here. :eek: What's even scarier is that there was a study about a year ago that showed the protein that causes the disease has been found on surgical tools even after autoclaving them(which pretty much kills everything else). If anyone wants to sign a petition regarding the subject here's a link:
http://www.organicconsumers.org/madcow.htm

Hope i didn't step on your thread Lacy(or take it somewhere you didn't want it to go).

P.S. Free Speech TV is a great thing Mr Tomato.

[Farmgirl303]

Some states have already passed laws allowing the authorities to enter your property and kill your entire flock if they even suspect you might be involved in cockfighting. They need no evidence. You have no recourse. Check out NoNAIS.org for other information on what your big brother is up to. My small flock of 70 organically-raised birds has a mortality rate that is less than one-third of that in commercial poultry yet they are at the greatest risk from bird flu... not the H5N1 virus but bad policy and bad politicians.
You are correct, the prion that causes mad cow is tolerant to autoclaving, also to alcohol and soap. It's a wicked little protein that makes other good proteins go bad. Not only can one get mad cow by eating the little bugger but it can also enter the body through open cuts. If the laws prohibiting feeding cows to cows were enforced mad cow would not be a problem.

(I am also east of Cleveland)

[bmarkham]

Infective viral particles are present in bird droppings so a free range flock can be infected just by a wild bird flying over and dive bombing the watering trough. It doesn't need to hobnob with the locals. So - yes - home flocks are definitely at risk!

I should point out that the objection to flock destruction is NOT because folks object to government acting proactively in an emergency to keep people from dying. Most people expect that from government. The objection lies in the fact that we no longer believe that the motives of our government are pure. In other words - we believe it to be corrupt. Many no longer have confidence that it would really be destroying a flock for a good and sufficient public safety reason, but could merely be using that as a smoke screen to do the dirty work of commercial interests.

But - yeah - making provisions for housing a flock inside would seem prudent ....

[Cliff Timmons]

I wonder if making a covered chicken yard kind of like a pheasent run would work.

I might have to do that.

[mrtomatoexpres]

hi farmgirl303. they say you can't feed cow parts to cows,but you can feed cow parts to chickens and hogs.then they feed the chicken and hog parts back to the cows. iam not the brightest star but iam the dullest star.it sounds to me that they still feed cow parts back to cows. :confused: :rolleyes: :mad:. does anyone now if there is a organicfarm or store that sells organic meat.

[Farmgirl303]

We all, at the very least, need to make provisions to keep our flocks inside. I currently have bird netting over my runs to keep out a very big hawk but birds still manage to get in and co-mingle. Keep in mind that most of these bird related virus outbreaks started in China where they have 18 BILLION chickens.... let me repeat that, 18 BILLION chickens many of which are living in cages above the hogs so the hogs can eat the protein rich chicken droppings and other disgusting things. I attended an exellent seminar on the topic last week.
Supposedly chickens and pigs do not get prion diseases but I think it is just a matter of time. Consider that salmonella in eggs never occured before factory farms. Antibiotic resistant bacteria are also a huge problem in the "conventional" pig farms. Also, the prion that causes mad cow is so resistant I wouldn't be surprised if it can be passed on through cow parts fed to chickens that are then fed to cows. The USDA will not allow farmers or processors to legally test for mad cow. Tell me how this assures our food safety!
My local independently owned grocery has actually started selling organic chicken so you may want to go to a local butcher or small grocery and start nagging. I raise my own chickens and ducks and I get lamb from a friend but you can go to organicgrassfedbeef.com and see if Max will put you on his list. He sells organic grass-fed beef from Scottish Highland oxen .... just make sure you don't over cook the meat or it will get tough (genetically low fat) and Curly Tail Farm sells organic pork (get their info at OEFFA.org).

[bmarkham]

I'd expect that a totally covered (i.e. roofed) chicken run would be safe as long as it prevented contact with wild birds or their droppings.

I strongly suspect that practically all animals are subject to prions. Deer herds, for example, now are host to a prion-borne illness called "chronic wasting disease." Squirrels also carry a similar nasty prion; and where I grew up occasionally people would die from it after eating the squirrel brains. Lemme see ... cows, deer, elk, squirrels and humans get prions - but I'm supposed to believe that pigs won't?

[REV127]

Bird flu reality does not live up to the hype. Read the following link then do your own research to confirm anything you're skeptical of.

http://www.lionsgrip.com/chickensavianflu.html

If there is a real threat from bird flu it's that big agribiz is trying to wipe out small bird farmers the same way Monsanto is trying to wipe out the OP growers. Greed greed greed with some malevolence thrown in.

"You can have my chicken when you pry it out of my cold dead hands!"

:p

Seriously though, somebody wants to corner the market on the food supply at our expense and they're going to use bird flu and mad cow as the excuses even though it is the factory farms that are the real offenders.

[jennyz]

I've done ALOT of research on MadCow. Let me tell you-they haven't figured out yet how to kill the bacteria. They've tried burning it, steaming, microwaving, chemical,burying it,ect,ect-and they haven't found a way to kill it yet. That's scarey.:eek: My question is, why are they feeding cow animal products in the first place? Cows are herbavores.
Here is another interesting fact: the red cross and the hospitals or other places that you can go and give blood-will not take your blood if you have spent ANY time in England at all. What does that say to you??? :( :confused:

[REV127]

Here is another interesting fact: the red cross and the hospitals or other places that you can go and give blood-will not take your blood if you have spent ANY time in England at all. What does that say to you??? :( :confused:

To me it says its high time to put an end to artificially depressed food prices so real farms can replace the factory farms and their ghoulish practices. Nobody is buying food cheap as it is right now, you pay part of the cost in dollars and part of the cost with your health.

[Jennie_in_Iowa]

If there is a real threat from bird flu it's that big agribiz is trying to wipe out small bird farmers the same way Monsanto is trying to wipe out the OP growers.
...
Seriously though, somebody wants to corner the market on the food supply at our expense and they're going to use bird flu and mad cow as the excuses even though it is the factory farms that are the real offenders.

Very true. If NAIS goes through it looks like your chickens wont be the only animals at risk for warrentless seizure and destruction. Sheep, cows, horses, you name it. If you can even afford to keep animals under NAIS guidelines, rules and fees.

[sammyqc]

I'm not sure I quite understand what you mean by "knowing this country, it's probably here now"??????

I kind of resent that remark. How much mad cow have we had here? Bird flu? Of the millions of people who live in this country, how many cases have there been? Seems to me we must be doing something right, huh??? Now, what you really need to be worrying about is the rising rate of obesity and diabetes in this country because sitting down to a healthy meal and getting exercise is at a high-threat level of becoming extinct.

From what I remember, the usa did have several cases of mad cow, and there were some rumbling of s.s. and s. about the USDA's practices for taking care of the whole mad cow "scare". I know I'll get lambasted for saying so, but I just don't have the time to go look up the actual sources right now. And, yes, Canada had cases as well. I'm under no illusion that our government agencies dealt with it all that much better, although they did trace the cows, and as far as I know, didn't try too hard to cover it up.
But if cows were treated as cows, fed what cows should eat, (not each other), and while they're at it cut out the hormone treatments, maybe it would never have been a problem. I, for one, buy organic milk, because I don't want my daughters to go through puberty at age 8. I truly believe there is so much crap in not only milk, but the meat, the veggies, that it is affecting the rate of obesity, diabetes, cancer and other diseases. I don't think it is because we are all sitting in front of computers, or video games, or whatever. I think there is a direct link between our illnesses, and our food.

P.S. ----S.S. and S. stands for shoot, shovel and shut up.

[Ohiorganic]

curretnly the USDA tests fewer than .1% of the cattle for BSE this does not make me feel safe so I buy only locally raised pasured meats not fed melamine laced feeds or feed conaining animal by-products