Very confused - Southern CA Newcastle prevention

[Beachbumcluck29]

Hi I am a little confused and trying to get information about Newcastle vaccine used for Southern California Chickens.

We have a small group of 3 year old chickens near Long Beach, CA. I am wondering if it would help to get my flock the Newcastle vaccine to help prevent it from coming our way or if the vaccine would only hurt it. I have read that the strain in the vaccine is not the same. I want to check to see if it will help in any way with prevention. I dont want to give it if it will hurt them.
Second part to my question is if your chickens are vaccinated will this prevent them from just coming and killing your chickens? Our chickens are our pets and we really do not want to see anything happen to them. Just scary seeing the stories of them killing backyard flocks in los angeles that tested negative. I understand they need to stop the spread but if our chickens are healthy and NO signs of anything I want to try and help them stay alive and well.
I hope someone can help answer my questions.

Thanks in advance
- Scarred Chicken owner

 

[Kathy Golla]

They dont have a vaccine for the current strain of Newcastle, which has come into the US from Mexico from Belize.
The current Newcastle vaccine is for another strain and doesnt protect birds from the current Newcastle strain in SCAL.
If your birds are vaccinated, it doesnt make a difference to the USDA/CDFA if you are in a mandatory euthanization zone.
VND has centralized itself in Riverside/San Bern county in more rural areas for a year. They are more worried about wiping out the disease around commercial poultry/egg operations, and I dont believe that is Long Beach.
All of LA County is under a quarantine right now. They found like I think two cases in a year in LA County, and it was fall last year. All this means for you is, dont move your birds, dont let them run loose, dont take in new birds.
Everything's going to be OK.
The important thing is what YOU can do as a chicken owner to help. Knowledge is power!
Practice biosecurity with your flock.
~Dont go to other peoples houses who have chickens, or have them come to your house.
~Disinfect shoes and tires after, if you go to a farm, fair, bird show, and esp feed stores, anywhere where people who have chickens may be
~Dont move your birds anywhere
~Close your flock, do not take in any new birds from ANYONE
~Disinfect shoes and tires with Clorox or Lysol spray that has "dimethyl benzalkonium chloride or succinate" as a main ingredient. Its very easy.
~Spread the word about biosecurity.
According to @Animalfisherwoman the CDFA is working on some mapping to let folks know exactly where new cases are being found, vs just the county name.
You can also watch the LA Quarantine thread here for ongoing discussion.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/los-angeles-county-ca-under-bird-quarantine.1293980/
This is a good page to watch, too. It gets updated every Friday about noon. Look at the 2019 cases table.
https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ou...ease-information/avian/virulent-newcastle/vnd

@Animalfisherwoman , @Brahma Chicken5000, @BreanneRN and @TexasKiki know a lot about this. You could PM them or me with any questions, too. You go to Inbox on the upper right corner, start a new conversation and type in the name starting with a "@" it will autopopulate the name for you that you are sending the message to, and you choose the name in the address section then type in the message and send. It will be a private message.

 

[Animalfisherwoman]

The USDA Aphis study (12/18) found vaccination to be a risk factor for backyard chickens. This could be because of insufficient vaccine technique (you have to repeat it every 6 months) or false positive readings.

Kathy is correct in describing good biosecurity and quarantine.

You are in a quarantine zone, not a mandatory euthanasia zone, for now. CDFA has done an overly vague job of informing citizens who are in one by saying, for example, that a zone may be neighborhoods in or around Riverside. The situation there is horrific--people with appointments are coming home to broken-into backyards with chickens removed. They're having neighbors ask if they're a meth house since four cop cars also show up. These are largely moms and grandmas. At this point, it goes beyond the argument of whether this is necessary or not, and into whether it is remotely constitutional.

More information on the latter situation is available here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/los-angeles-county-ca-under-bird-quarantine.1293980/page-64

The Save Our Birds SOS FB site for support and advocacy for RivCo chicken owners is here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/348877789075792

 

[Beachbumcluck29]

They dont have a vaccine for the current strain of Newcastle, which has come into the US from Mexico from Belize.
The current Newcastle vaccine is for another strain and doesnt protect birds from the current Newcastle strain in SCAL.
If your birds are vaccinated, it doesnt make a difference to the USDA/CDFA if you are in a mandatory euthanization zone.
VND has centralized itself in Riverside/San Bern county in more rural areas for a year. They are more worried about wiping out the disease around commercial poultry/egg operations, and I dont believe that is Long Beach.
All of LA County is under a quarantine right now. They found like I think two cases in a year in LA County, and it was fall last year. All this means for you is, dont move your birds, dont let them run loose, dont take in new birds.
Everything's going to be OK.
The important thing is what YOU can do as a chicken owner to help. Knowledge is power!
Practice biosecurity with your flock.
~Dont go to other peoples houses who have chickens, or have them come to your house.
~Disinfect shoes and tires after, if you go to a farm, fair, bird show, and esp feed stores, anywhere where people who have chickens may be
~Dont move your birds anywhere
~Close your flock, do not take in any new birds from ANYONE
~Disinfect shoes and tires with Clorox or Lysol spray that has "dimethyl benzalkonium chloride or succinate" as a main ingredient. Its very easy.
~Spread the word about biosecurity.
According to @Animalfisherwoman the CDFA is working on some mapping to let folks know exactly where new cases are being found, vs just the county name.
You can also watch the LA Quarantine thread here for ongoing discussion.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/los-angeles-county-ca-under-bird-quarantine.1293980/
This is a good page to watch, too. It gets updated every Friday about noon. Look at the 2019 cases table.
https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ou...ease-information/avian/virulent-newcastle/vnd

@Animalfisherwoman , @Brahma Chicken5000, @BreanneRN and @TexasKiki know a lot about this. You could PM them or me with any questions, too. You go to Inbox on the upper right corner, start a new conversation and type in the name starting with a "@" it will autopopulate the name for you that you are sending the message to, and you choose the name in the address section then type in the message and send. It will be a private message.

Thank you that is a lot of good information!!! We have done most of these things you mentioned. I will start to spray down the feed bags with lysol, that was good to know. I hope this gets contained soon. I really didnt know this was such a huge deal in los angles county until the news did a few stories on it and then I just was informed my chicks that I ordered last year cant be shipped till this is over.
Thank you very much!!

 

[Kathy Golla]

Thank you that is a lot of good information!!! We have done most of these things you mentioned. I will start to spray down the feed bags with lysol, that was good to know. I hope this gets contained soon. I really didnt know this was such a huge deal in los angles county until the news did a few stories on it and then I just was informed my chicks that I ordered last year cant be shipped till this is over.
Thank you very much!!

Clorox disinfectant wipes also have that ingredient.
Make sure the chickens don’t ingest or get sprayed with Lysol or you’ll have another problem on your hands.
Glad to help. Hang in there.

 

[Beachbumcluck29]

The USDA Aphis study (12/18) found vaccination to be a risk factor for backyard chickens. This could be because of insufficient vaccine technique (you have to repeat it every 6 months) or false positive readings.

Kathy is correct in describing good biosecurity and quarantine.

You are in a quarantine zone, not a mandatory euthanasia zone, for now. CDFA has done an overly vague job of informing citizens who are in one by saying, for example, that a zone may be neighborhoods in or around Riverside. The situation there is horrific--people with appointments are coming home to broken-into backyards with chickens removed. They're having neighbors ask if they're a meth house since four cop cars also show up. These are largely moms and grandmas. At this point, it goes beyond the argument of whether this is necessary or not, and into whether it is remotely constitutional.

More information on the latter situation is available here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/los-angeles-county-ca-under-bird-quarantine.1293980/page-64

The Save Our Birds SOS FB site for support and advocacy for RivCo chicken owners is here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/348877789075792

Thank you for those links. I hope with keeping them from free ranging that will help, along with the other tips. Just keep our fingers crossed. I feel so helpless. I couldnt imagine coming home to them being removed or killed. I would freak out!

 

[Kathy Golla]

Try to get everyone you know to do their part. That’s the best thing we can do right now. If everyone in the zones practiced biosecurity this would be over.

 

[Animalfisherwoman]

Thank you that is a lot of good information!!! We have done most of these things you mentioned. I will start to spray down the feed bags with lysol, that was good to know. I hope this gets contained soon. I really didnt know this was such a huge deal in los angles county until the news did a few stories on it and then I just was informed my chicks that I ordered last year cant be shipped till this is over.
Thank you very much!!

All incoming chick orders in zip codes 90000-93999 are cancelled as those flights go through LAX. Chicks can still be bought and sold in Orange, SD, Ventura but legally can't be brought into LA County.