It cannot be good for my blood pressure seeing people in chicken groups be so nonchalant about this fucking virus (HPAI).
“ I think the stress of containing them would take em out faster.” I.. I can’t even. Get them a couple of chicken toys and a head of cabbage and they’ll be fine
“just use collodial silver/cayenne pepper” Collodial silver is a god damn scam and cayenne pepper may help their immune system or whatever but not enough to stop them from dying of this. Someone asked about corid and since they weren’t insistent on it I guess I can forgive their ignorance but the past two years of Hydroxychloroquine/ivermectin has tired me out.
“There isn’t enough room in my coop/run to lock them up” you have too many chickens then and/or an inadequate set up
“ I free range - I don’t have a building just hoping for the best” how have coyotes not eaten your entire flock by now
“I’m not going to live in fear” scientists invent way to experience March 2020 again, for some reason
And of course you can’t forget:
“ I’m just making sure mine are wearing their mask “
please for the love of god keep your birds safe <3
A study published Thursday shows how a bird flu virus that’s sickening and killing people in China could mutate to potentially become more contagious.
Just three changes could be enough to do the trick, scientists report in the journal PLOS Pathogens.
And the news comes just as federal officials are getting ready to lift a moratorium on controversial lab experiments that would deliberately create flu viruses with mutations like these.
Public health officials have been worried about this bird flu virus, called H7N9, because it’s known to have infected more than 1,500 people — and killed 40 percent of them. So far, unlike other strains that more commonly infect humans, this deadly virus does not spread easily between people.
The fear is that if it mutates in a way that lets it spread more easily, the virus will sweep around the globe and take a heavy toll, because people’s immune systems haven’t ever been exposed to this type of flu before. Past pandemics caused by novel flu viruses jumping from animals or birds into people have killed millions.
I once had a neighbor who was thoroughly convinced their indoor/outdoor cat never strayed further than a couple houses around. As proof, she put a GPS tracker and little camera on her cat. 24 hours later she had the proof she didn’t want. Her cat went as far as a mile away, into the nearby woods where their were coyotes and other predators that would a snack of her cat. Her cat crossed the interstate several times, went to a construction site, and various other places that had me surprised her cat was still alive.
The following week was full of them building a catio and enriching their home. The cat became an indoor cat and chilled out very happily in the catio. They spent the summer harness and leash training their cat as well.
Oh, and the cat killed over a dozen birds and didn’t eat any of them in the single day my owner tracked them with the camera and GPS. They had been going out daily for over a year. Imagine a cat killing 12 birds a day, everyday, for just a year. That devastates the local bird population and leads to the extinction of entire species.
Enrich your home, install a catio, get a few cat trees/towers, play with your cat, and they’ll live long healthy lives. No worries about some random person killing them with poison or shooting them, no worries about them getting hit by a car, no worries about destroying the local ecosystem. My cats are 17 and 15 years old, 100% indoors their entire lives, and they’re happy.
Oh and since avian flu aka bird flu is spreading, please remember that it kills animals that eat the contaminated meat. That means if a cat kills an infected bird and eats it, they will get sick and die.
DIY boredom busters (note: I don’t recommend straw, it can cause impaction. Also the free ranging idea obviously doesn’t apply but the rest are good)
Flock blocks: Purina,Kalmbach (use something to keep them from touching the ground)
Wyze Cam v3 - not so much a boredom buster for your flock but allows you to see and hear your flock! A boredom buster for humans perhaps
This is a basic list so feel free to add more. It’s also USA centric however this virus is in the UK and Canada (and surely others). Even if you don’t have poultry, please do your part and help out by taking down bird feeders and waterers/baths.
Ughhhh. HPAI (highly pathogenic avian influenza) has made it to Michigan backyard flocks. It’s still across the state from me but that won’t last, and it’s been found in backyard flocks in several other states now as well. AI is a flock eradicator; if any of your birds get it, the whole flock must be culled and there’s a wait period before you can start over.
PLEASE bring in your bird feeders for the next few months to discourage birds from gathering together.
Even if you don’t have outdoor birds like me, you can help protect flock birds in your area by removing feeders and bird baths etc from your yard. This will help to slow the spread to flocks like mine.
If you are in the USA and have flock birds
Bring them in if you can. If you only have a couple, set them up indoors if you can. If you’re like me and you can’t, do your best to move food and water sources into the coops where wild birds won’t see them. You can buy bird prevention netting to wrap your run in, and tarp the top of it to prevent falling excrement from reaching your birds as wild birds pass overhead.
It should go without saying, but I’m gonna say it. You should also avoid going to places where others have birds (like auctions, swap meets, visiting farms or friends that have them), or allowing anyone that’s been where there are birds to visit your property. If you must have visitors, a 10% bleach solution in a tub for them to step in is the bare minimum of biosecurity so they don’t track it in on their shoes.
There are tests for Avian Influenza, which can be done without killing the birds. If you are concerned your birds may be showing symptoms of AI (sudden deaths, decrease in egg production, decrease in water intake, or other illness symptoms), you should contact your state agricultural department (in Michigan, MSU ag department and MDARD handles this kind of stuff, not sure for other states) and inquire about what steps to take to have testing done. They will be able to advise you on what to do.
Good luck to those in states where this is moving around widely now. I hope everyone’s flocks stay safe. Please feel free to add resources for your state if you know them. Many states offer free AI testing!
For people wondering YES if you have exotic birds like parrots this is still something to be worried about. And i would follow Kedreeva’s advice
Oh yes, waterfowl and poultry are the most sensitive to this, but it’s avianinfluenza. It’s been found in plenty of songbirds/passerines, as well as the birds of prey that eat them, and there’s zero reason why psittacines are excluded except that most of them live inside houses.
If you do have completely indoor birds already (like parrots or pigeons or finches) then you need to be leaving your shoes at the door (preferably stepping into a bleach footbath with those shoes before removing them), not allowing your birds down onto the floor (and cleaning floors regularly with something to disinfect), and not allowing your birds outside until this passes, which could be months. You also should not be mixing equipment between enclosures, and doing your best to keep equipment clean and sanitized.
This has been steadily progressing across the US as birds migrate. A small farm in upstate NY just had to cull their entire flock of 400. Hundreds of thousands of meat birds at facilities around the US have had to be culled. Turkey farms have had to cull tens of thousands. McMurray Hatchery just lost half their heritage breed flocks to a positive test at one of their larger breeding facilities. There are a half dozen cases in Michigan, getting closer to me. Iowa has begun a blanket cull radius where any flock within 2 miles of an infected flock must be culled, positive or not, to prevent it jumping.
New cases and the major culls that follow in their wake, are being reported daily, and this is still just starting. Migratory season doesn’t end until the middle-end of May. April has barely started. The total death toll so far is upwards of 15 million birds, and that’s going to continue to go up.
Please, please, please. Protect your birds, protect the birds around you. I am begging you to bring your birds in if you can; they will not like it but at least they will be alive to not like it. I posted this originally when I thought we wouldn’t be able to coop everyone, but I have made sacrifices in order to do so since, because this is getting very bad.
Stay safe. My thoughts are with everyone’s feathered kids.
(Current as of April 6th, 2022)
Reblogging to add that there is a current and often-updated map of HPAI case locations in the USA on the USGS site. States that do not currently have cases still need to be wary, particularly the closer you are to states that HAVE had cases.
This is the map as of today, 6 April 2022:
I also want to tack this information on to this main post:
HPAI is transmissible to cats and dogs!
Studies done in 2015/16 and since have found that cats and dogs can pick up this virus from infected meat (as in when they eat wild birds they have caught) as well as through respiratory transmission. Cats and dogs are not generally susceptible to LPAI, the normal strain in north america, but both were found to be susceptible to HPAI.
So, in addition to removing bird feeders and keeping any pet birds on lockdown as much as possible, folks with cats and dogs need to be aware of the dangers to their animals as well. Cat owners should keep their cats indoors or allow them out in covered catios only (you’ll have to read up and decide if leash time is safe, I haven’t looked into it) until migratory season ends. Folks with dogs should not allow dogs off-leash outdoors where they might be able to catch birds or touch bird carcasses. While HPAI mainly causes death in waterfowl and land fowl, songbirds are a reservoir species and can transmit it to mammals interacting with them or their carcasses or feces.
Please be careful out there. This is going to get worse before it gets better.
Growing up, I had a cat who was an obligate indoor-outdoor. He could not tolerate being indoor only, by which I mean he became uncontrollably violent. No he did not just sit at the door and mew unhappily. Nonetheless, we kept him in for temporary dangers like snowstorms and Halloween. This avian flu season might be an opportune time to give it one more try.
