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afulle03
Longbeard
Joined: Sun May 15, 2005 2:49 pm Posts: 152 Location: Haysi VA
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Bird Flu?
Can there be bird flu in Virginia? Has anyone observed any strange behavior in any turkeys this season? My uncle told me yesterday that he saw a hen beside the road slouched over. He stopped and she took off running about 20 feet and stopped. He went up the road and turned and came back and she was slouched down again where she had stopped at. He said he was able to get a good look at her when she was beside the road. She wasn't bleeding no feathers out of place nothing. The worrying part about this is 3 days ago we had a chicken get ill. He was not able to stand without toppling over right afterwards. He went 3 days and got worse and worse before we killed him to stop it from spreading. Well today my dad calls me and said that we have another chicken doing the same thing. Unable to stand up and has no energy. I went up and looked at the bird she is wobbling back and forth and spinning her head around and around. My father called the health department and I contacted the Department of Game. The health department is supposed to send someone out to look at this new bird. I have not heard anything from the Game and Fish yet. Lets all hope and pray that this is nothing major....... I'll keep you updated on what if found out.
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Tue May 09, 2006 9:01 pm |
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Freddy
Boss Gobbler
Joined: Fri Dec 03, 2004 12:50 pm Posts: 3138 Location: Goodview, VA
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Ugh... keep us posted... interesting...
_________________ "You have to pay for every bird you kill and the coin you use to pay for them is time." - Tom Kelly
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Wed May 10, 2006 9:08 am |
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peacemaker
King of Spring
Joined: Fri Mar 25, 2005 2:15 am Posts: 2632 Location: Campbell Co., VA
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. . . ditto . . . please keep us posted on your findings.
_________________ "I'd rather look bad doing something hard than look good doing something easy." -- Tom Kelly
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Wed May 10, 2006 11:32 am |
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afulle03
Longbeard
Joined: Sun May 15, 2005 2:49 pm Posts: 152 Location: Haysi VA
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Well guys, an update sadly...... The health department blew us off after saying they were going to send someone out to check on things. The department of Game and Fish told me I need to contact the regional Agriculture department, we did that and they said that it would be very expensive to run the test to check the bird. And we would have to bring a bird down to Charlotte NC and we would be responsible for paying for the test. And since we cannot afford to pay for these tests on our own nothing was done. Overall 4 birds died. We decided to clean and disinfect the coop and hope this will get rid of whatever it was ailing the birds. So far no more birds have become ill. It is still sad that no department even remotely seemed interested in the problems that our birds were having.
I watched a special on the news about bird flu and it showed a bird in a large factory infected and the way the bird was acting is exactly how our birds acted. EERY….. Oh well its been over a week now and no more birds are ill. So hopefully it is over.
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Tue May 23, 2006 1:56 am |
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peacemaker
King of Spring
Joined: Fri Mar 25, 2005 2:15 am Posts: 2632 Location: Campbell Co., VA
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That's pretty frustrating. If we're going to have a DGIF & an Ag Dept., this certainly seems like something they ought to be examining in light of the current bird flu scare . . .
_________________ "I'd rather look bad doing something hard than look good doing something easy." -- Tom Kelly
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Tue May 23, 2006 11:30 pm |
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afulle03
Longbeard
Joined: Sun May 15, 2005 2:49 pm Posts: 152 Location: Haysi VA
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Yeah my thoughts exactly! The guy from the health department said "oh it will hit on the coast before it hits anywhere else". It wouldn't take a bird 1&1/2 hour at most to fly on into Virginia. But you know its like everything else deny deny deny. Prevent panic, sweep it under the rug until its to late. That’s the way our government works on most things now a days it seems.
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Wed May 24, 2006 3:57 am |
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Vic
King of Spring
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 7:40 am Posts: 2706 Location: Baltimore, MD
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Birds, like the rest of us, get a flu that is specific to the species. You may remember a few years ago of a flu that went through a lot of chickens in eastern MD. They killed a lot of birds trying to stop the spread of the disease. Though it killed many chickens it didn't kill any people.
The reason many our concerned about the bird flu in China is it has crossed the bird/man barrier. Some people are catching the flu from their flocks. This is new. This too isn't too big of a deal but the concern is if it changes slightly more it will be transmittable person to person. If the strain of flu mutates slightly more it may be able to cross this barrier and this is when you could have a pandemic. This may never happen or it could happen tomorrow. I am putting it into the category of wait and see.
The reason so many are greatly concerned at this point is the fault of the media. Just like anything else the media is blowing this way out of proportion. Be very very afraid is their motto. Just think about how they make a big deal about the snow storm that never happens.
At any rate, I am betting that the health department is assuming the bird flu you have is the common variety. So if it has passed it is gone so don't worry about it.
My 2 cents.
Vic
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Wed May 24, 2006 9:12 am |
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Neill
King of Spring
Joined: Sat Dec 04, 2004 8:30 pm Posts: 988 Location: Lexington
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The quick way to get them to pay for it would be to have called your local news station while you still had the dead birds on hand......they would have been all over that and the state would have picked up the tab real quick.
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Wed May 24, 2006 9:35 am |
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afulle03
Longbeard
Joined: Sun May 15, 2005 2:49 pm Posts: 152 Location: Haysi VA
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haha, well I wouldn't go that far as to contact a news station over it. I've read up on bird flu and it is pretty nasty but they are working on a few cures and vaccines for it right now. And we only have about 20 birds and only 4 of them died. It was a scare though during the first week when each day another bird was getting sick and showing symptoms of the bird flu. But like others have said it could have been something else and in the end must have been something else. I love my bird to much to destroy all of them like the big factories do. So we just cleaned and sterilized everything that the birds come in contact with on a daily basis and this seemed to get things back under control. It just pi**ed me off that no organization even gave it a second glance. Thank goodness it wasn't the bird flu but what if it had been then what, A chance to identify it and possibly stop and they did nothing. I mean the what if's make me mad when I think about it.
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Wed May 24, 2006 6:42 pm |
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