The Poultry Keeper

bronskibeat · Joined: 09 Sep 2007 Posts: 1615 Location: Clawddnewydd

Fingers crossed for you Magpie x

milkmaid · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 7161 Location: isle of lewis

good luck Magpie

Welsh Duck · Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 10:41 pm Post subject:

Good luck Magpie, and anyone else affected

CP · Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 10:05 am Post subject:

http://tinyurl.com/2tfrvh

Such an awful thing to happen, especially in the run-up to Christmas. Crying or Very sad

It must be devastating & heartbreaking for farmers at the moment with this & F&M & Bluetongue. Crying or Very sad

sasha.p · Joined: 04 Sep 2005 Posts: 479 Location: gwent

i really feel for anyone who is close to the area as everyone else has said good luck magpie hope your stock are not affected by it it must be awful and very uncomfortable knowing its right on your doorstep.

bronskibeat · Joined: 09 Sep 2007 Posts: 1615 Location: Clawddnewydd

CP · Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 1:19 pm Post subject:

Yes I noticed that too. Very Happy

debcat · Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 3:49 pm Post subject:

one of the dangerous contacts has turned into a slaughter on suspicsion Confused

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article2875594.ece

Magpie · Joined: 28 Aug 2007 Posts: 553 Location: Norfolk

Hi, thanks for the support Smile

. I'm not at all surprised about them finding dead birds at one of the sites - how many turkeys would die each day through other causes in a flock of 5500 anyway? Presumably as the 5 sites share the same staff defra will have kept the staff away from the four "contact" sites since Sunday anyway? I'm guessing a bit here but would five or six losses per day in a flock of 5500 be expected with birds of this age, if so and they haven't been attended since Sunday then that would add up to the 30 dead birds they found this morning? A lot of guesswork but my father agreed with me (and he worked for MAFF for 30 years, including during the FMD and Swine fever outbreaks 30 odd years ago).

Tim

Magpie · Joined: 28 Aug 2007 Posts: 553 Location: Norfolk

milkmaid · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 7161 Location: isle of lewis

i'm so sorry it must be so hard ,good luck

bronskibeat · Joined: 09 Sep 2007 Posts: 1615 Location: Clawddnewydd

I'm not entirely sure of mortality rates in large poultry concerns but did read somewhere that the mortality rate in intensively reared chickens was shockingly high. From personal experience, turkeys arent the brightest crayons in the box with regard to survival skills so I (may be wrongly) would expect a certain amount to die, especially if they are spooked at night in housing, they tend to clump together and smother one another. Just a thought, after all, something is obviously wrong down there and one site has tested positive for H5N1.......

All the best Magpie.

Timbo · Joined: 03 Mar 2006 Posts: 202 Location: Cranfield, Beds.

I was watching the BBC Look East news last night and they were showing trading standards officers going around looking for chickens that were out, serving notices to owners. They say there are still many people with their chickens out in the restricted zone... I'm surprised.

The good news is that if there are no outbreaks found locally in the wild bird population soon around there then it is most probably an isolated incident for now and should be brought under control fairly quickly.

Good luck Tim, I hope this passes soon.

Tim

Magpie · Joined: 28 Aug 2007 Posts: 553 Location: Norfolk

The latest news is no that the 30 birds at the second farm have tested negative for AI Rolling Eyes

. But defra won't confirm that yet or say what they did die of Confused

.

I guess it is the same all over the country but a lot of the poultry keepers round here have semi-feral birds that happen to lay eggs in the same place every day but are never handled and don't have coops or houses as such. I dropped some stock off at Wyken Hall this afternoon and they still have birds running free (including 10 day old bantams!), they are just outside the surveillance zone...

I saw the Look East bit last night as well - and the first thing I did this morning (after feeding/watering the chooks Wink

) was to put a Virkon foot dip at the gate and a Critical Control Point sign directing everyone to use it Twisted Evil

. If anyone wants the sign you can download it free from here; http://www.antecint.co.uk/main/biosigns-eng.htm The way it looks now, if AI is gong to spread it will be down to some idiot not disinfecting between holdings Evil or Very Mad

.

Tim