Avian flu confirmed in backyard flock in Yorkshire 6-1-17

Cavalier

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Thanks for posting, I hadn't seen this, Settle is about 35 miles from me. I have my chickens in gazebos with lots of bird netting round so hopefully ok. One of my near neighbors has not put his under cover at all which is worrying.
 

jrp204

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We have friends with 15000 free range hens and 10000 enriched. Obviously everything is in. They were unable to get insurance and apparently the clean up costs will be about 200k if they went down with it. Tense times!
 

teacups

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A lot of people in our village haven't done anything, including my immediate neigbours. Interestingly it's mainly the farming/country born and bred/hunting and shooting crowd who are doing nothing.

I met one local farm owner today who was telling me about her friend the large poultry farmer who was keeping them in, but she wasn't going to do anything because 'avian flu is all wild birds anyway'. When I said that's why she should be keeping her chickens away from wild birds, she said 'well they go in at night'. Basically she can't be bothered, and unless someone makes her she's not going to do it.
 

lizziebell

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Apologies if I've missed reading it somewhere, but does anyone know the incubation period? Would these backyard birds have caught it prior to the restrictions, or is this an example of someone not following protocol?
 

Cecile

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People around me are not doing anything, just carrying on as normal, poultry out during the day and in at night, when my husband mentioned it to my neighbour she just replied, not heard anything about it! He suggested she look on the Defra website but he says that went down like a lead balloon
In Countrywide store tonight someone was advertising 2 hens, all food and accessories + 4'x4' hen house etc for £25 their advert seemed a bit desperate
 

Honey08

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My neighbour (from about half a mile away as the crow flies) called today about something else and we got onto the subject of hens because I'd posted on Facebook last week when it was extended. She said she'd taken advice from her daughter, who did one year of vets school then dropped out over six years ago, and decided it was pointless putting them in. She'd also spoken to our vet, who said he didn't think it would stop anything, but he'd put his in because he was a vet and needed to set an example. I said it wasn't a case of making a choice and it really annoyed me that most people were trying really hard and a few weren't doing anything. It only really went in when I said there was a possible £5k fine, she said she'd go and do some research. She probably thinks I'm going to report her now!


And I agree they're just lazy folk that can't be bothered going to the effort of protecting them.
 
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bonny

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I have been talking to someone who knows a great deal about the poultry industry worldwide and he says there is no answer to the current situation and that keeping birds inside for a few weeks/months makes no difference at all. He says we need to stop having free range commercial flocks altogether and that it will never be possible to contain disease the way that the uk is heading with more and more demand for free range eggs and chickens. He also says the welfare of birds being kept inside is higher but for PR purposes the public think the opposite. He says sooner or later the industry is going to have to go public with this opinion.
 

Honey08

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Well comparing my ex batts to the commercial free range flocks I see around my friend's house, I think he's wrong! The ex batts are in a dreadful state. I see no signs of welfare whatsoever. Yes they get injections etc, but they're far from healthy birds.
 

cobgoblin

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I want to know what's going to happen at the end of February. What is the criterion for lifting the ban?
After 90 days eggs and poultry will not be able to be sold as free range ( not that they actually are at the moment....I find this misrepresentation) but the migratory birds will be coming back....so lifting the ban would be rather negligent.
 

Clodagh

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I have been talking to someone who knows a great deal about the poultry industry worldwide and he says there is no answer to the current situation and that keeping birds inside for a few weeks/months makes no difference at all. He says we need to stop having free range commercial flocks altogether and that it will never be possible to contain disease the way that the uk is heading with more and more demand for free range eggs and chickens. He also says the welfare of birds being kept inside is higher but for PR purposes the public think the opposite. He says sooner or later the industry is going to have to go public with this opinion.

He is talking *******s! (About the welfare).
 

popsdosh

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I am lucky, noone near me keeps birds but if they did, and had made no effort I would be fuming. Grapevine has it that the ones in Settle were not contained.

Excuse me if its already been picked up on but DEFRA confirmed yesterday that the backyard flock in Carmarthenshire were not housed and most were dead when they got there .
 

popsdosh

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I want to know what's going to happen at the end of February. What is the criterion for lifting the ban?
After 90 days eggs and poultry will not be able to be sold as free range ( not that they actually are at the moment....I find this misrepresentation) but the migratory birds will be coming back....so lifting the ban would be rather negligent.

What do you do create total meltdown in the poultry industry by declaring flocks not free range. That in itself may push some producers to flout the law! As far as im aware all the time theres a mandatory order in place they retain their status.
I do find it somewhat odd we have not yet had a major outbreak in game birds as possibly out of all birds they may be most vulnerable .
Just watch out after the weekend as the drop in temperatures will cause another wave of Duck from the continent.
 
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Clodagh

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popsdosh - I do am amazed that pheasants have not succumbed. Perhaps they are very healthy!? They must be stressed this time of year though.
We have a pond across the road where we put down ducks for a duck drive, we also get endless wild ducks flighting in, and phasants that live around the pond and eat the wheat. All bright and well so far, and please God may that continue.

I heard both the Settle and Carmarthen flocks were a mix of ducks and chickens, and not housed. Were they sharing water with wild ducks? Does anyone actually know much about the specific situations?
 

MotherOfChickens

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maybe the sick gamebirds are the ones wandering into the roads..

I do think there are definite welfare issues in backyard 'free range' birds-many actually-that the commercial guys I know are always moaning they'd not get away with-and they have a point. I do think backyarders need to rethink how they keep their chickens if they cannot keep them well confined as this will keep happening. It is perfectly possible to do it well-its just harder work and more expensive. Even ducks can be kept well in pens-geese are a different matter.
 
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bonny

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He is talking *******s! (About the welfare).

In every way that these things can be tested, chickens kept indoors do better and the death rate is significantly lower. I was surprised but I suppose it's easier to think that having access to outside makes for happier chickens, without us really knowing the truth. I'm not talking about caged birds btw.
 

Clodagh

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I am sure that competition horses with no turn out show fewer signs of stress than a wild herd, but life is about more than no stress.
Chickens graze, dust bath and interact, all things they cannot do when confined. Like not allowing a horse to roll.
 

Alec Swan

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I haven't yet got my head around the shutting up of poultry, or how it will in any way prevent or even slow down the spread of Avian Bird Flu.

When the disease is prevalent in and spread by and through the wild bird population, a population over which we have no control, just how enclosing poultry will make any difference, at all, is beyond me. If it was a problem within domestic poultry, then preventing it (or attempting to) from spreading to wild birds would make sense, but as the disease is amongst our wild bird population, the orders handed down are a pointless knee-jerk reaction and are in place in an effort to convince us that DEFRA are on the ball, which we all know, they aren't!

As for the cry to stop shooting, what earthly difference does anyone think that such a decree will make to the spread of the disease? :D

Alec.
 

popsdosh

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I haven't yet got my head around the shutting up of poultry, or how it will in any way prevent or even slow down the spread of Avian Bird Flu.

When the disease is prevalent in and spread by and through the wild bird population, a population over which we have no control, just how enclosing poultry will make any difference, at all, is beyond me. If it was a problem within domestic poultry, then preventing it (or attempting to) from spreading to wild birds would make sense, but as the disease is amongst our wild bird population, the orders handed down are a pointless knee-jerk reaction and are in place in an effort to convince us that DEFRA are on the ball, which we all know, they aren't!

As for the cry to stop shooting, what earthly difference does anyone think that such a decree will make to the spread of the disease? :D

Alec.

As I have said on another thread Defra were put under pressure by the larger free range egg producers as they wanted to protect their flocks by housing as to those producers the risk were to great not to house. The only way these producers can maintain their status when housing birds is if there is a defra housing order in place.

Quite honestly Alec I think the value of housing is born out by the last two flocks to succumb were both not housed. I agree however it is futile because once it is in the indigenous wild bird population the rabbit is out of the hat. Im not sure if its just coincidence but we seem to have a lot less duck on the drains over the last couple of weeks.
 
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MotherOfChickens

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Housing birds will only have a marginal effect on controlling the spread of it. But it should also help the disease to disappear faster-less small pockets of outbreaks = less transference of it between wild birds and poultry, basic numbers and I don't understand why some can't work that out. It (has been shown now) help individuals keep their birds safer and one presumes most of them would want that.
 

Cecile

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Having been through the horrors of F&M I am a stickler for biosecurity, all my animals are very important to me and if keeping poultry housed is even remotely what it takes to keep poultry safe and not risking other people's poultry so be it. It has also raised the need for biosecurity again so people who haven't a clue about it can learn and maybe some of the things which should be done in a normal day is alien to people but as far as I know no-one has died from washing their footwear, keeping rodents under control and basic commonsense biosecurity measures

Regarding Deathra anyone with livestock knows they are not on the ball but I will always do what I feel is right to try to protect my animals and wouldn't need them to tell me what to do, it would come instinctively

I have not heard about the cry to stop shooting but according to our local newspaper today in Country Matters quote *It is thought that Avian Flu is widespread in the wild bird population in this country* Not sure how they worked that out either unless they know more they we are being told
 

teacups

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Alec, it is common sense that if you try to stop contact between wild birds and domestic birds, then the domestic birds are less likely to catch any bird flu carried by the wild birds.
Just as humans know that if they avoid contact with anyone who's got the lurgy they are less likely to catch it!

Bird flu (not this particular strain, but it adapts quickly just as human flu does) has jumped species from birds to humans in the past. This particular strain is highly contagious and has a high death rate, so if this one jumps over to infect humans we'd be looking at a major flu pandemic. I suspect they don't really want to cause any panic, but afaik it's one reason for trying to stop the flu getting to domestic flocks (as well as protecting the poultry industry).

Anyway, I'm happy to do my bit. It's a pain but perfectly manageable.
 
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