He spread of bird flu in the US, this is deadly for poultry raises the terrible question of how farms manage to kill and quickly eliminate millions of chickens and turkeys.
It is a task that farms across the country are increasingly facing, as the number of poultry killed in the last two months has risen to more than 24 million, with outbreaks reported almost daily. Some farms have had to kill more than 5 million chickens in one place with the aim of destroying the birds in 24 hours to limit the spread of the disease and prevent the animals from suffering.
“The sooner we can get to the site and depopulate the remaining birds, the better,” said Minnesota State Veterinarian Beth Thompson.
The latest bird flu outbreak, too called bird flu, is the largest since 2015, when producers had to kill more than 50 million birds. So far this year, there have been cases in 24 states, with Iowa being the hardest hit with about 13 million chickens and roosters dead. Other states with major outbreaks include Minnesota, Wisconsin, South Dakota and Indiana.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, birds can get the flu when they come in contact with saliva, runny nose, or feces from an infected bird. The flu is considered “highly contagious among birds” and can kill certain domesticated species such as chickens and turkeys, according to the agency.
Although human cases of avian viruses are rare, some have been reported. Humans can become infected when the virus gets enough into their eyes, nose, or mouth. According to the USDA, humans cannot contract the disease from poultry or eggs that are handled and cooked properly at an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Once a person is infected, symptoms range from conjunctivitis, fever, diarrhea and vomiting to severe respiratory illness and neurological changes.
Lethal foam
Farms facing the need to kill so many birds resort to the recommendations of the American Veterinary Medical Association. Although it has developed methods to kill poultry quickly, the association acknowledges that its techniques “may not guarantee that the deaths suffered by animals are painless and distress-free.” Veterinarians and U.S. Department of Agriculture officials also often oversee the process.
One of the preferred methods is to spray water-based fire-fighting foam on the birds as they pass through the ground inside a barn. This foam kills the animals by cutting off their air supply.
When the foam doesn’t work because the birds are in cages on the ground or it’s too cold, the USDA recommends sealing the barns and introducing carbon dioxide inside, first leaving the birds unconscious and finally killing them.
If one of these methods does not work because there is no equipment or workers available, or when the size of a herd is too large, the association said the last resort is a technique called ventilation shutdown. In this scenario, farmers stop the flow of air to the barns, which raises the temperatures to the levels at which the animals die.
The USDA and the veterinary association recommend that farmers add extra heat or carbon dioxide to barns to speed up the process and limit the suffering of the animals.
Mike Stepien, a spokesman for the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, said techniques are the best option when so many birds need to be killed quickly.
“State animal health officials and producers carefully weigh the different options to determine the best option for human depopulation and do not take these decisions lightly,” Stepien said.
“We need to do better”
Not everyone agrees.
Animal welfare groups argue that all of these methods of killing birds quickly are inhumane, although they are especially opposed to stopping ventilation, which they believe can take hours and is similar to leaving a dog in a hot car. . Animal rights groups last year filed a petition signed by 3,577 people involved in animal care, including about 1,600 veterinarians, urging the veterinary association to stop recommending stopping ventilation as a matter of course. option.
“We have to do better. None of them are acceptable in any way,” said Sara Shields, director of farm animal welfare science at Humane Society International.
Opponents of standard techniques said that fire foam uses harmful chemicals and basically drowns birds, causing chickens and turkeys to have seizures and cardiac arrest while dying. They say that carbon dioxide is painful to inhale and detectable by birds, which causes them to try to escape the gas.
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Karen Davis, of the nonprofit group United Poultry Concerns, urged the veterinary association to stop recommending its three main options.
“They’re all ways I wouldn’t choose to die, and I wouldn’t choose anyone else to die, regardless of the species they belong to,” Davis said.
Shields said there are more humane alternatives, such as using nitrogen gas, but these options are often more expensive and could have logistical challenges.
Protection of food supply
Sam Krouse, vice president of Indiana-based MPS Egg Farms, said farmers feel miserable to use any of the options.
“We are devoting our lives and our livelihoods to caring for these birds, and it is devastating when we lose any of these birds,” Krouse said. “Everything we’re doing every day is focused on keeping the disease out and making sure we’re keeping our chickens as safe as possible.”
Officials stress that this virus, which spreads mainly through the feces of infected wild birds, does not threaten food safety or pose a significant threat to public health. Sick birds cannot enter the food supply and properly cooking the poultry and eggs kills any virus that may be present. And health officials say no human cases of bird flu have been found in the United States during the current outbreak.
Once the poultry are dead, farmers need to quickly eliminate the birds. In general, they do not want to risk spreading the virus by transporting the carcasses to landfills, so crews often pile the birds in huge rows inside the barns and combine them with other materials, such as crushed corn stalks and sawdust. to create them. a pile of compost.
After a couple of weeks of decomposition, the canals become a material that can be spread on farmland to help fertilize crops. In some cases, the canals are buried in the trenches of the farm or incinerated.
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