Avian influenza found in South Carolina

[Chickeeaholic]

At some point, the rational part of your brain begins to recognize that politicians in positions of Administration often make policy decisions for reasons of politics, not science??? How very rational of you...

...and yes, they likely know its Unconstitutional, but will remain in effect while a challenge winds its way thru the Courts for years, serving their political purposes.

Not just politics, more like many politicians make decisions for the corporations that paid for them to be in office. I think it's imperative to remember that the WEF doesn't want anyone eating meat or animal proteins in the future. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/03/bezos-gates-back-fungus-fake-meat-as-next-big-alt-protein-.html

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Not just politics, more like many politicians make decisions for the corporations that paid for them to be in office. I think it's imperative to remember that the WEF doesn't want anyone eating meat or animal proteins in the future. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/03/bezos-gates-back-fungus-fake-meat-as-next-big-alt-protein-.html

Honestly, as someone who once worked as, functionally, a lobbyist for a few days at a time, off and on, in addition to my regularly assigned job duties - I can say with absolute confidence that Corporations have almost no pull with politicians (excepting a select few, in select areas - like Disney + Copyright), because they spend too much time (and not enough money) working at cross purposes to one another.

The company I worked for manufactured a product.

There were legislative changes they could have sought which would have put Mfg's of add-on products on a more level playing field with them - but they didn't, because they had a hand in some of those companies. There were legislative changes that would have placed them at less mercy to the businesses that sold their products, and repaired their products. They didn't, because THOSE business did have a very effective lobbying arm, and did donate heavily in the community, and state laws left them with no legal choice but to work thru those busnesses.

Also, the company I worked for (and those in competition with it) had some ugly history to overcome - that the history was older than most voters didn't matter - we were the ones at the table who least smelled like roses, and the others at the table spent plenty of effort making sure the consumers/voters kept that image in mind.

I've seen how the sausage is made. I've participated in it. Frankly, it makes the first time you butcher your own birds look like an elegant and restrained art.

 

[Chickeeaholic]

Honestly, as someone who once worked as, functionally, a lobbyist for a few days at a time, off and on, in addition to my regularly assigned job duties - I can say with absolute confidence that Corporations have almost no pull with politicians (excepting a select few, in select areas - like Disney + Copyright), because they spend too much time (and not enough money) working at cross purposes to one another.

The company I worked for manufactured a product.

There were legislative changes they could have sought which would have put Mfg's of add-on products on a more level playing field with them - but they didn't, because they had a hand in some of those companies. There were legislative changes that would have placed them at less mercy to the businesses that sold their products, and repaired their products. They didn't, because THOSE business did have a very effective lobbying arm, and did donate heavily in the community, and state laws left them with no legal choice but to work thru those busnesses.

Also, the company I worked for (and those in competition with it) had some ugly history to overcome - that the history was older than most voters didn't matter - we were the ones at the table who least smelled like roses, and the others at the table spent plenty of effort making sure the consumers/voters kept that image in mind.

I've seen how the sausage is made. I've participated in it. Frankly, it makes the first time you butcher your own birds look like an elegant and restrained art.

I appreciate your insight. That is bad because sadly I botched my first solo cull with a bird I dearly loved. It wasn't at all the way I wanted.

I guess I have PSTD from covid but I don't expect the bird flu to be handled any better, matter of fact I am preparing for it to be worse. I hope everyone does a stellar job protecting their flock for the sake of the flocks and future of chicken keeping. I suspect this is going to be tough. NPR is reporting it wont burn out as fast as the last bird flu due to the amount of wild birds carrying it and this time it might be here to stay.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I appreciate your insight. That is bad because sadly I botched my first solo cull with a bird I dearly loved. It wasn't at all the way I wanted.

I guess I have PSTD from covid but I don't expect the bird flu to be handled any better, matter of fact I am preparing for it to be worse. I hope everyone does a stellar job protecting their flock for the sake of the flocks and future of chicken keeping. I suspect this is going to be tough. NPR is reporting it wont burn out as fast as the last bird flu due to the amount of wild birds carrying it and this time it might be here to stay.

Since most of the time I was sitting at the table with people who didn't know what the law of their State CURRENTLY said, and were planning on changing simply because it didn't provide the remedy one of their constituents (who likely shared a very one sided view of events) wanted, your first culling experience is pretty much "spot on".

California dealt with Newcastle for roughly two years. Europe has been dealing with multiple strains of AI for 2+ years, there's decent chance our strain came from one of their birds at the extremes of their seasonal grounds. So your guess that we are likely to see this for a brief span of years, rather than a vrief span of months... Probably "spot on" as well.

And it seems like we have an AI outbreak from wild birds every dozen years or so. That's just Nature being nature.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

...and further comment, don't put too much weight on AI being in the wildlife "this time around". AI is ALWAYS in the wildlife. Waterfowl serve as a reservior for it, always have. It just happens that the variety of the influenza virus they are carrying loads of happens to be highly lethal in chickens right now - likely due to random mutation with another virus already in some chickens. That's how it usually goes.

Basically, we are waiting on viruses to do what they usually do. Killing the host is NOT the goal of a virus. It needs the host to live, so it can be passed on. Over time, virii tend to become more transmissible, and less lethal. At least, successful virii. In short, either it burns itself out, or it becomes endemic.

Sound familiar???

 

[Sally PB]

Sound familiar???

All too.

 

[DonyaQuick]

California dealt with Newcastle for roughly two years. Europe has been dealing with multiple strains of AI for 2+ years, there's decent chance our strain came from one of their birds at the extremes of their seasonal grounds. So your guess that we are likely to see this for a brief span of years, rather than a vrief span of months... Probably "spot on" as well.

Good point about the European timeline. Hadn't thought to look at it over there even though I knew that's where it came from. Well, nuts to that if that's how it drags on over here. I don't care to guess what interesting restrictions my state might brew up over that kind of time frame if things don't die down. Trying to keep my chickens in any kind of proper lockdown has become a joke at this point, since all my efforts seem to have done is teach them to be little ninjas that shoot out any door gap at high speeds and strange angles. I'll keep my tarp but I guess I guess I'm slowly joining the "done" club and should just do/get the things that need doing/getting.

 

[NatJ]

Trying to keep my chickens in any kind of proper lockdown has become a joke at this point, since all my efforts seem to have done is teach them to be little ninjas that shoot out any door gap at high speeds and strange angles.

I've seen photos of aviaries with double doors: one door leads into a small pen, then a second door leads from the small pen to the main pen. So the person can go into the small pen, close the outer door, then go into the inner pen. Going out is the reverse order of course: stand in the small pen to close the main pen, making sure all birds are inside, before opening to door leading ouf of the small pen.

I'm pretty sure it would work just as well with chickens as with other birds. Going through one gate and then another takes more time than going through a single gate, but maybe less time than chasing escaped chickens

I suspect a purchased dog kennel (the walk-in kind) could be used for this, because the small pen doesn't really need to be predator proof. It just needs to contain chickens long enough to shoo them back into the main pen.

 

[Folly's place]

AI arrived in Livingston county, Michigan this week, and it's close to home. Our birds will be staying inside, which is a pain, but is working so far.
Mary

 

[DonyaQuick]

I've seen photos of aviaries with double doors: one door leads into a small pen, then a second door leads from the small pen to the main pen. So the person can go into the small pen, close the outer door, then go into the inner pen. Going out is the reverse order of course: stand in the small pen to close the main pen, making sure all birds are inside, before opening to door leading ouf of the small pen.

Even prior to HPAI I had wondered about trying to set something like that up but it would have to be tall and with a roof, which is a non-trivial building task for me, and I'd probably have to carve out part of a hill too. I looked but never found anything pre-made that would work with my setup easily. Last year I tried using a hip-high jointed play pen fence around one of the doors. It mostly worked until several of my girls learned they could parkour up my back and off my shoulder. This will sound bizarre, but if my area ever becomes a hot zone it will actually be easier for me to set my chickens up with something in a well-ventilated spare room of the house than to escape-proof the human-sized doors of my coop setup.