Avian influenza found in South Carolina

[RoyalChick]

I think yhey're "announcing" via their news items only the first per state, but keeping more complete data elsewhere. The data in the tables contains multiples per state, often over time too for the wild birds. This is where I noticed the new NY cases: https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ou...pai-2022/2022-hpai-commercial-backyard-flocks

Frustratingly, you cannot simply type "NY" or "New York" and view all of them together. One is listed as NY and the others are listed as New York spelled out. I imagine the wild bird cases page may have the same issue.

Anyway, these are the two new ones in NY from that page I linked.

Dutchess County, New York	2/24/2022	Backyard Mixed Species (non-poultry)
Ulster County, New York	2/24/2022	Captive Wild Birds (non-poultry)

There is another New York entry in the database:
Suffolk County, NY 2/19/2022 Backyard Pet Chickens (non-poultry)
Which once again raises the question of what a non-poultry chicken is.

 

[saysfaa]

...Which once again raises the question of what a non-poultry chicken is.

They say what non-poultry is. It is a chicken that is not in a commercial flock.

Edit to add: If you sell eggs or birds and do not know if you have a commercial flock, you don't.

 

[RoyalChick]

They say what non-poultry is. It is a chicken that is not in a commercial flock.

Oh - I missed that. Thank you.

 

[3KillerBs]

They say what non-poultry is. It is a chicken that is not in a commercial flock.

Which is rather ridiculous, because chickens, ducks, geese, etc. have always been considered poultry throughout history regardless of whether they were for home use or commercial sale.

 

[Iluveggers]

Let’s see if we try that definition in a town that has a no poultry clause….

“Well, sir, according to the DOA, poultry is only counted as poultry if I am selling chicken or eggs commercially. So my chickens are not breaking a town ordinance.”

 

[saysfaa]

Best guess is they didn't want to explain what they meant each time they used the term.

 

[RoyalChick]

Let’s see if we try that definition in a town that has a no poultry clause….

“Well, sir, according to the DOA, poultry is only counted as poultry if I am selling chicken or eggs commercially. So my chickens are not breaking a town ordinance.”

Love it. Worth a try!

 

[3KillerBs]

Let’s see if we try that definition in a town that has a no poultry clause….

“Well, sir, according to the DOA, poultry is only counted as poultry if I am selling chicken or eggs commercially. So my chickens are not breaking a town ordinance.”

I love it!

 

[igorsMistress]

With respect, *most* are unqualified to hold that opinion - or any opinion at all. The collective opinion of the ignorant is, in all likelihood, the most common ignorant belief.
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Europe has been dealing with Avian Influenza for a few years now. There is a non-trivial possibility that our AI infection this year comes from infected European birds sharing seasonal grounds. We have one of the Eurasian clades, not the American clade of this particular AI variety. The numbers of birds they have now culled - of numerous species - makes CA's response look like a stumbling series of half measures. Its now found from the UK to Isreal. Our friends across the pond now have three different varieties in fact. AI in Europe continues to spread, and CA managed to contain it in just two years, culling fewer birds than in their prior effort about two decades before.

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Harsh at first, you catch more flies with honey that you do vinegar. California had VND running rampant, that’s a different ball game. I agree with your assessment about how AI got here though.

 

[igorsMistress]

Depending upon circumstances? YES.

As Europe is doing right now.
As California just spent the last two years doing. (plus UT and AZ, thanks to some bird owners who tried to "protect" their flocks by removing them from quarantine areas - or perhaps were outside of the quarantine areas at the time of their move).
As the East Coast of the US is doing right now.

Testing is ongoing. Quarantine areas are being declared, and "no movement zones" like the entire state of Georgia. Flocks with an infected bird are being destroyed.

History tells us that how much more draconian the responses get to this outbreak will depend entirely upon its severity, and State government's percieved ability to control/contain it. So far this year, thousands of birds have been culled due to AI in the US. Hundreds of thousands, now, but less than a half million, at last count.

If this strain of H5N1 makes the jump to humans (as an H5N1 strain has in the past) or starts appearing in more than a flock here, a flock there, such that it pouts US poultry businesses in severe risk? You can bet that the 1.2M birds CA killed to get vND under control will look like a rounding error.

This chart is in THOUSANDS of heads of chickens. Doesn't address turkey, over the 165,000 have already been culled due to HPAI this year. CA culled 1.2 million to protect 17 million, about 7% of their head in response to vND, over a two year period. They are the 10th largest chicken state.


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HPAI (obviously, not the same disease as vND) has already been found in a number of the top ten states, above. The UN's Food and Agriculture program reports 225 cases in the US this year, as of 8 days ago.
View attachment 3003916

That said, don't panic. Take reasonable biosecurity precautions, and hope this goes the way of most AI outbreaks - quickly forgotten. Given the huindreds of millions of birds in the affected areas, we are very fortunate this isn't already worse than it is.

There were no mass cullings in AZ or UT. Sick birds were moved from California to those two states but the situations were under control right away.