Saw this article today:

As egg prices soar, Trump administration plans new strategy to fight bird flu''

https://apnews.com/article/trump-admini ... 13d602c3aa

I can see the all natural organic crowds go into an uproar.

Maybe stop indiscriminately firing people in charge of food safety?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2 ... s-fda-cdc/

In my opinion they need more inspectors not less.
We have way too many recalls nowadays.

Vaccines are heavily used in China and Egypt, and seems to work for them.
There is no other 'medication' applicable to prevent bird flu, afaik. Probably calling it 'medication' to avoid controversy.
IDK what they also do or plan to do for biosecurity management but doubtless there is something to sanitize worker boots etc.
The article talks about enhancing the biosecurity between barns on a single farm, which is going to be tricky for those huge farms with 2 million plus birds. But still, a better effort has to be made.
We had a small backyard flock outbreak here on the island recently. The news article touted biosecurity measures as being well worth it. Nothing has spread to commercial egg farms, although obviously it's in the wild.

I don't see anything in this new strategy that would upset organic people. The eggs from these mega farms are unlikely to be organic in the first place. I don't think there's anything in the organic standard that would prevent vaccines to your animals, nor biosecurity. There's always an equivalent for organic farm practice.

I doubt that vaccines will be recommended for our birds when the CDC no longer recommends vaccines for our children. I do think that it's a good strategy though. There is nobody to enforce it's use and nobody to recommend it either. This would be left up to the chickens owners.

How much would it cost to vaccinate that many chickens?

I believe the article said it would be impractical to go in and vax 2 million birds, but that they might start with their pullets. So if so, over time they would replace with vaccinated birds. No idea what it would cost. Probably a little bite out of the profits, but not nearly as expensive as being on the hook for losing all your birds in an outbreak.

bower wrote: ↑Wed Feb 19, 2025 1:41 pm I believe the article said it would be impractical to go in and vax 2 million birds, but that they might start with their pullets. So if so, over time they would replace with vaccinated birds. No idea what it would cost. Probably a little bite out of the profits, but not nearly as expensive as being on the hook for losing all your birds in an outbreak.

But doesn't the government pay for the lost birds?

@worth1 paying for lost birds would not be a thing, if it became the practice to vaccinate instead. There would be no expectation of lost birds if they're all vaxed.

Yes they do they pay for 75% of the value of the chickens lost.
So far since 2022 they handled out over a billion dollars to big factory farms.
Why is it effecting egg prices and not so much chicken meat prices.

https://www.poultryproducer.com/is-givi ... %20farmers.

worth1 wrote: ↑Wed Feb 19, 2025 1:51 pm

bower wrote: ↑Wed Feb 19, 2025 1:41 pm I believe the article said it would be impractical to go in and vax 2 million birds, but that they might start with their pullets. So if so, over time they would replace with vaccinated birds. No idea what it would cost. Probably a little bite out of the profits, but not nearly as expensive as being on the hook for losing all your birds in an outbreak.

But doesn't the government pay for the lost birds?

Yes they do and who is there counting how many birds that they have slaughtered? Big Ag is making money. Please bring this to Musk's teams attention.

And it almost always seems to be the huge chicken flocks in the enclosed, climate controlled buildings... which leaves me wondering how are they getting exposed... because it would seem to me that the free range out in the pasture exposed to wild birds would be those put down first.... the whole situation just seems so very odd And of course they are now setting the stage for our diary herds to be killed due to bird flu...

Well, I haven't seen how these places are run exactly. But any operation involving a million chickens or a herd of dairy cows is going to produce a lot of manure. Manure management is part of the deal, and the reality that large amounts of manure attracts animals of various kinds. There is also going to be occasional wasted feed or spoiled feed that had to be disposed, there may be grain in the bedding when that's cleared out, and again, this is very attractive to both birds and other animals.
So I would imagine that there could be a large contingent of wild animals at the periphery of these giant farms?

It could be as simple as, walking the virus into the building on your rubber boots.

Biosecurity measures on poultry farms has been around for a while now, however it is not mandatory. A great article gives a pretty in depth description of the various measures used. And yes, stepping through tubs of disinfectant before entering the poultry house is one of them.

https://thefarminginsider.com/biosecuri ... try-farms/

Waste management in the poultry industry:

https://poultrylife.com/en/technical-ar ... -industry/

I imagine that some company is working on a method of dosing flocks with a vaccine via the water the chickens drink. They should since it would be the easiest and least expensive way to vaccinate.

It's not natural for that many animals to be cramed into one place like that.
The same for the feedlots for cattle and pigs.
And to think they sell chicken feet at the store.

I saw this last night: some evidence of bird flu being airborne and spread by the wind!
That'd make it tricky to stop alright. Bit of dust with a virus?

bird flu spread through the air/ windborne
https://phys.org/news/2025-02-evidence- ... tions.html