HPAI anyone had experience with this in a duck flock or had free range ducks in an area with cases of it?

[Kimmyh51]

I am in New Zealand, where, touch wood, we dont have it and wont. But it has recently made its way to Australia and according to the news there is a risk it will come here during this winter (just started winter here) or during spring, with migratory birds.

I run a duck rescue, currently in rented land, have been saving to buy my own but land is horrifically expensive and hard to come by here and the market for the contract work I do, has completely bottomed out in the last 10 or so months so that I am currently living off my savings and buying land is off the table till the work market comes right.

So building large covered runs for my 100+ birds is not an option on rented land, though I do have a great landlord and if things get bad I am hoping he may rent me some barn space if it becomes necessary to lock the ducks up.

I am pretty sure that here, if there was ever one single case in a bird here, or in an a bird in the flock of anyone who adopted a bird from here, then every single bird here would be required to be culled to prevent spread, including my precious disabled duck even if he was kept indoors and never exposed to it.

We dont have any access to the vaccine here. Not only is there apparently a shortage but there is a literal ban on it in NZ, so even if i can source it myself overseas and get my vet to script for me to import it, i may as well be wanting to import cocaine as it is outright banned (the logistics of that still baffle me as surely me vaccinating wild birds if i can before release is better for everyone than me releasing unvaccinated birds who may share territory with endangered species!). So vaccination is not an option in the foreseeable future.

Anyway just wondering if anyone has had an HPAI outbreak in their own ducks, or knows anyone or has lived in an area where it was nearby, and if so what you did to prevent spread/keep your flock safe, if you had birds get sick with it, what it looked like in your birds when it happened, how fast it spread etc etc
And any practical advice you can give me that I may not already have researched on keeping my birds safe, and if it gets to nz myself too.

Hopefully it will never get to NZ, but if it does I dont want to be scrambling then for what to do I want to have a plan in place already.

 

[Kimmyh51]

Googled for any info online from amyone who hd had it and found this, which pretty much confirmed what id expect would happen here

Am so frustrated that i was so damn close to having jy own land for my ducks when the job market went to sh-t

Now i have 30, going on 40 k of savings to re-save when it comes right, just to to get back to where I was

 

[Miss Lydia]

I think it is a bunch of hype and this is all I will say about it.

I am very sorry things are bad in NZ too not much better here for the American folks either.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...m-my-awful-experience-with-avian-flu.1532060/

 

[Kimmyh51]

I think it is a bunch of hype and this is all I will say about it.

I am very sorry things are bad in NZ too not much better here for the American folks either.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...m-my-awful-experience-with-avian-flu.1532060/

We dont have it here in nz yet, hopefully wont. I am just trying to prepare as best i can, as i an certain if any bird in my flock or a neighbouring flock or any flock i might step foot onto, ever tests positive then thr govt will cull every bird i own, as they will want to stamp it out and also apparently the number of tests for it here are so limited that they would not be abke to test even a small percentage of my flock if there were any outbreaks in neighbouring birds, so they would probably just cull all my ducks to be safe, unless i could provide super concrete evidence that there was no way my birds could have been exposed....

but also just wanting to find out what peoples experiences have been if they have had a bird infected (both in terms of what the local authorities did and also how many birds died how fast it spread any biosecurity measures that worked or didnt work to isolate infected birds etc etc)

So not here yet, but if it get here it might spread fast being a small country, so I am trying to learn what i can and figure out hat i can realistically do to protect my birds and myself, both from hpai, and from any overenthusiastic govt culls, if any birds at flocks or places near me get tested positive with it. So both protect my flock and also provide evidence if it does get to nz and is found anywhere local to show i have kept my birds isolated, if that is possible

 

[Kimmyh51]

Thr first fee lines of the post you linked to are what i fear. Their babies which have clearly never been exposed still being culled. I am certain if it gets anywhere near me that will happen to my bird. That scares me more than me actually getting it myself despite there apparently being a 50% death rate....

 

[Miss Lydia]

I haven’t heard of anyone dying of the bird flu here in the us they came out and said someone in Mexico died from it but I just saw they have retracted that now and said it wasn’t bird flu.

 

[Kimmyh51]

Read the rest of the post you linked to, absolutely heartbreaking. Its locked so i cant respond to it directly, but my heart breaks for the Colleen Ray. Her post is also very informative and sadly the experience she had i suspect would be the same here. No interest from authorities in scientific facts and actual risk it seems

 

[Miss Lydia]

I've read it many times it very heartbreaking.

 

[Lauraduck]

I am in Hawaii and sadly the avian flu has arrived here as well. The heartbreaking thing is... it was found because it caused an outbreak at a waterfowl rescue and all the birds had to be put down.

I have 5 ducks and I really don't know how to fully protect them so me my yard isn't huge and they are used to free ranging. I have removed all food and water sources for wild birds and this has reduced them by a lot, but I'm not sure what else to do.

Here's the news story
‘It’s so bad.’ Hawaii’s first cases of avian flu confirmed at Wahiawa duck rescue https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2024/...ases-avian-flu-confirmed-wahiawa-duck-rescue/

 

[My15Ducks]

I am in Hawaii and sadly the avian flu has arrived here as well. The heartbreaking thing is... it was found because it caused an outbreak at a waterfowl rescue and all the birds had to be put down.

I have 5 ducks and I really don't know how to fully protect them so me my yard isn't huge and they are used to free ranging. I have removed all food and water sources for wild birds and this has reduced them by a lot, but I'm not sure what else to do.

Here's the news story
‘It’s so bad.’ Hawaii’s first cases of avian flu confirmed at Wahiawa duck rescue https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2024/...ases-avian-flu-confirmed-wahiawa-duck-rescue/

I’m also in Hawaii and I’m so concerned about my ducks. I just made them a big 100 x 150 ft pasture and I hate to think I have to confine them to protect them.

I would be interested to hear any tips, ideas, experiences from people who live in states or countries that have been dealing with bird flu for awhile.

It sounds like the ducks here in Hawaii may have been infected by zebra doves, which are extremely common here. That’s very concerning to me.

So far I’ve come up with some ideas based on my research, but I don’t know if this will be enough or even if it’s necessary.

Disinfect car tires & shoes when arriving at our farm.

Cover the duck pasture with a nylon net to keep doves and other small birds out. But is a net good enough or if bird poop falls through the net can my ducks still get sick?

Feed fermented feed and other natural anti virals (herbs, etc) to help fight off viruses.

Treat our catchment water with chlorine to kill viruses from wild birds.

The thought of my ducks getting sick, or of the government murdering my ducks is making me sick to my stomach.