Deadliest-Ever ... 47 Million Chickens and Turkeys Killed

The U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee is set to hold a hearing next month on the deadliest-ever outbreak of bird flu in U.S. poultry amid mounting criticism from Iowa lawmakers about the speed of the U.S. Agriculture Department's response.

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More than 47 million chickens and turkeys have been killed in the past six months because of bird flu or are set to be culled to prevent the spread of the disease. Most are hens in Iowa, the nation's top egg-producing state, and U.S. egg prices are projected to set an annual record high because of the losses.

U.S. Lawmakers to Examine
Worst-Ever ... Bird Flu Outbreak

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Avian flu has caused the price of eggs to spike higher than they have in more than 60 years.

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State agriculture officials decided ban all poultry shows and public sales from mid-August to mid-January.

Officials Say Bird Flu is Headed to North Carolina

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Google-News-(past week): "bird flu"

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PREVIOUSLY:

Crisis: Large-Scale Chicken and Turkey Farms

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OPINION: It Won't Be Over Soon Enough.

the least-because:

21 days to hatch a chicken egg.

22+ more weeks to lay 1st-egg.
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a reply to: FarleyWayne

Just wondering , how would one go about killing 47 million chickens and turkeys . Thats an awful lot of heads to chop off .

a reply to: hutch622


Indiana Trains 300 Prisoners To Combat Avian Flu

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On Friday, the USDA said it wanted to hire more federal contractors "due to the size and scope" of the outbreak. The USDA and Iowa have contracts with three landfills in the state, including one with a large incinerator, to help speed up culling, bird disposal and barn clean-up.

For locals, help can't come soon enough. In Sioux Center, Iowa, neighbors of an infected Center Fresh Group egg-laying facility told Reuters the stench of dead birds was making them sick.

"We can't live here," said John Fuoss, who said he vomited from the smell of dead chickens and manure used as compost on a nearby field. "My head's ready to explode."

States Enlist Prisoners

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a reply to: FarleyWayne

It doesn't actually say how they do it . and 156,000 birds per prisoner is still quite a lot .

a reply to: hutch622

From what i found in my nation they use Gas for that.

Mass gasification is the best way to dispose of poultry. How exactly? You have to cracks and holes in the stable seal , and then high-pressure CO2 injection , so that it immediately spreads throughout the barn . It can also be cold gas, but that collects on the bottom , and then you have a chance that some animals sit in a corner and survive. The method is suitable for chickens, turkeys and ducks

www.npowetenschap.nl...

Article is in Dutch so sorry for source reference only but go ahead and break your brain on the language

I'd rather in a serious case of bird flu pandemic they just gas all the infected ones. I know that sounds harsh, but they are really meant for food/slaughter eventually.

a reply to: Vector99

Yea, this is top quality food. There is no better food than chicken or turkey. Too bad they need to gas them. Funny thing is that this top quality food is so cheap that even if they kill 47 millions of birds, industry will not even feel a profit difference.

a reply to: saadad

I know that, and I wasn't advocating wasting food or animal abuse/torture by any means. What I meant was simply it would be better to be proactive in the situation rather than reactive (i.e. trying to sort the sick ones from healthy and a few sick ones slip through).

There is no reason these birds can't be used for food. Properly handled poultry will not convey bird flu to humans.
news.nationalgeographic.com...

Some are saying this is a giant insurance scam. Lots of these factory farms are in deep debt and losing money. This will shut them down and allow new owners to move in.

Good. Maybe enough people will stop buying poultry to run the industry into the ground where it belongs.

The way we treat these animals (and indeed the very way we perceive our relationship with them) is morally repugnant and we should be ashamed of ourselves for allowing it to continue.

a reply to: NthOther

Vegetarians...

a reply to: diggindirt

Key word PROPERLY handled. When most of that chicken comes from places that don't "properly" handle it, we get outbreaks like in the past.

I could take video of the chinese restaurant next door cracking the ribs on bare concrete, and also leaving vegetables in a dirty cart for hours on end.

It's all about PROPER handling, and well, I'd rather not take the chance until every year a new bird flu strikes, there are no human cases due to consumption.

Sad to say I'd rather have the livestock wasted than risking potentially deadly outbreaks.

Someone should link those viruses with how this industry is handling they animals. I have watch Earthlings and what they do to those animals and in what conditions they grow them is disastrous.

My first thought was, how the hell humans are not sick after they eat this. And i know there are many cancers and other illnesses that kill todays people. But overall you need to say that we are pretty resistant specie if we can eat that and only few get sick.

Thats why probably viruses hit birds, because looks like it can kill them easier. And if you can understand the nature, then you know that nature is in balance. There is no way nature will allow so many birds on the planet on one place. But keeps me wondering why is it allowing to humans to spread and pollute, must be we are not from this planet.

diggindirt
Or maybe they will get insurance money and still sell chicken, or do that famous minced meat for hamburgers, i hear they put anything in there.

It is all about money. Be smart, don't give them your hard earned money.

originally posted by: ItCameFromOuterSpace

Vegetarians...

What, you don't think our treatment of these animals is contributing heavily to these "outbreaks"? Just marginalize the whole idea, relegating it to some silly dietary eccentricity?

Once again, it's nothing but band-aids. "Ensure proper handling procedures."

No. A civilization that raises billions of retarded and deformed animals, then injects them with hormones and antibiotics, only to slaughter them to feed a selfish and ignorant populace...

...is the problem.

Let's address that. Nope. Proper handling procedures. We gotta have our damn chickens.

And anyone who disagrees is a vegan wacko.

Lest I be misunderstood: I don't buy poultry raised in the factory farms. I've fought them for over 20 years. I've listened to biologists in legislative hearings telling them this day would come. Not if, but when ....as a result of the way the critters are housed, fed and medicated.
I'm also not advocating that this meat be used for human consumption, just pointing out that proper cooking kills the bird flu virus. This meat could easily be made into pet food. The temperatures used to cook pet food is plenty high enough to kill the virus.
"Safe handling" is the law in processing plants where these birds are heading so the virus shouldn't be an issue at a USDA inspected plant. That why we have the USDA in place to protect the processing of food.
I feel for the people living in the areas where these chemical infested birds are being buried. All that crap is going to eventually make its way to the water table.
My poultry comes from a farm just down the road from me. My eggs come from another farm just down the road. It is my belief that we are better off when we keep our money in the local economy.

a reply to: hutch622

I've probably eaten close to 47 million chickens in my lifetime.

a reply to: Boeing777

Untill,,,....you face this one

So it's not actually the flu that is killing the chickens and turkeys.........it's the people from the department of agriculture.

Big difference!

Hey, didn't you hear?! We've just engineer our first synthetic protein in a culture dish! Who needs organic food, when we've specially designed nutritional sustenance, out of our state of the art clandestine military laboratories, worldwide. Home of our previous hit, Anthrax!

a reply to: NthOther

I am a carnivore and birds and fish are high on my priority list
of..."What's for dinner?"