1y ago

Highly pathogenic avian flu detected at Alabama chicken farm, nearly 48K birds killed

apnews.com Highly pathogenic avian flu detected at Alabama chicken farm, nearly 48K birds killed

Agriculture officials say the presence of highly pathogenic avian flu in a flock of chickens has resulted in the death of nearly 48,000 birds at a north Alabama farm.

After confirming the presence of highly pathogenic avian flu in a flock of chickens, nearly 48,000 birds were killed at a north Alabama farm, state agriculture officials said.

A Marshall County commercial pullet farm — one that raises chicks from hatching until they are ready to produce eggs when they are moved to a laying barn — was placed under quarantine after samples were confirmed positive for HPAI, the Alabama Department of Agriculture & Industries announced Friday.

HPAI is highly contagious to birds but considered low risk to humans and the virus is not considered a threat to food safety, the department said.

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Friendly reminder that lab grown meat is 10-20 years away from being affordable and then we don’t have to deal with this shit happening every few months
- Vertical farmed lettuce had an outbreak of ecoli three times in the past year. These people care about profits, not safety.
  
  And you know where that E. coli comes from, right? It’s when farms put cattle too close to their lettuce (this is shockingly common) and the E. coli goes from the cattle shit and washes down to the irrigation system, which goes to the lettuce. My understanding is this still happens due to how the irrigation/water systems work for hydroponic stuff.
  Not sure if you’re agreeing with me or you were trying to point out a flaw, but it’s still all caused by animal ag being shitty.
- Many folks could reduce meat consumption now as well to mitigate the damages.
  Americans have developed a norm of every meal needing meat, when for much of history it was a few times per week.
- Yeah....no. not in this case. For one, chicken is way cheaper and quicker to grow than pork or beef, and especially in this particular case, these birds were raised for egg laying. You aren't lab growing anything anytime soon that you can go buy for 97 cents a dozen.
  
  Where do you live that a dozen eggs cost less than a dollar?
  
  Not with the way US farm subsidies exist now, you’re right
- You can also go vegan right now. Every person that goes vegan saves hundreds of animals a year.
  
  Not really. They just save the bigger/cuter ones. Thousands of mice, voles, moles, birds, rabbits, etc die from plowing up all the fields and machine gathering crops. Farming plants still kills lots of animals. Just not cows pigs and chickens.
  
  Too many nut allergies. Unfortunately some of us won't be able to go Vegan with the way the ingredient lists on a lot of Vegan options read.
  It would be great.

Asking for a dozen eggs for Christmas is starting to make more sense.

Genuinely curious: how do you kill 48,000 birds? That's such a large number.
- They fill the barn with suffocating foam, if the chickens are lucky.
  If the chickens arent lucky, they just turn off the ventillation and close all the hatches. In full sun, the barn heats up to beyond lethal levels and the chickens die slowly of heatstroke.
  Many chicken barns have massive euthenasia systems built in, with huge tanks of nitrogen or CO2, and a foam generating sprinkler.
  In any case of disease they seal up the barn for days or weeks untill the corpses start to decay and then can be disinfected and sent to landfill.
  
  Never find out how the sausage is made.
- well, one time when swine flu was taking hold, they turned the air con off and the pigs boiled to death.

Sigh. What misery we inflict on the natural world.
- There's nothing natural about chicken farms.
  
  Or domestic chickens for that matter.

Chilton County had 6x the infected amount...
The presence of the virus in Marshall County comes a week after HPAI was confirmed in an upland gamebird farm in Chilton County. All poultry there -- nearly 296,500 birds -- were affected and all will be killed by the end of the week, the department said.
It was not immediately clear if the cases at both farms were connected.
Source mentioned in article: https://www.al.com/news/huntsville/2023/11/alabama-chicken-farm-quarantined-48000-birds-killed-after-highly-pathogenic-avian-flu-detected.html
More than 344,000 birds killed in Alabama to stop spread of Avian flu
https://abc3340.com/news/local/alabama-department-of-agriculture-and-industries-pathogenic-avian-influenza-hpai-in-a-commercial-pullet-farm-in-marshall-county-gamebird-farm-chilton-county
Looks like other countries are also dealing with a flu as well, that is recent news. Also pushing for more biosecurity measures and notifications of anomalies.
The outbreak detected in the northwestern state of Sonora killed 15,000 of a flock of 90,000 laying hens, and the remaining birds were slaughtered, the Paris-based WOAH said, citing Mexican authorities.
The ministry also said that the disease had been detected on another farm three kilometers away, which housed 54,000 birds, where disinfection was underway.
Russia, South Africa and parts of Eastern Europe have also reported concentrated outbreaks of the virus in recent months.
It comes after Mexico last year launched a large bird vaccination campaign in high-risk areas, including Sonora, to prevent the spread of H5N1.
Another statement from the Agricultural Ministry last week first announcing the detection of the virus said tests were underway to see if "the vaccine applied last year is effective in confronting the virus that entered in 2023."
Mexico's animal safety agency Senascia has urged local farmers to reinforce biosecurity measures on their farms and to immediately notify of any anomaly observed in their animals in order to protect the national poultry production, WOAH added.
Mexico reports first outbreak of H5N1 bird flu on poultry farm
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/mexico-reports-first-outbreak-h5n1-bird-flu-farm-2023-11-02/

Here we go again. They don't learn.

On a side note, I'm really glad we decided to get backyard chickens this year. Got 5 in the spring. They started laying in October. Got 74 eggs from October 4th through today.

Fuck

Was it highly contagious too?
- The answer is in the post

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