For those who haven't heard yet, there has been an outbreak of Avian Influenza in North Carolina and Virginia. All poultry shows have been cancelled. No swap meets or auctions, sale or movement of poultry, should be undertaken in either state until further notice.

-- Deidre Edder (edderland@yahoo.com), April 04, 2002

Answers

Deidre, where/who did you get this information from? I would like to know more about it, thanks

-- Debbie T in N.C. (rdtyner@mindspring.com), April 04, 2002.

many (if not all?) of the VA outbreaks have been in the shenandoah valley. however, the instances i have heard of have just been among turkeys, and the particular strain of the avian influenza was weak, but they are getting rid of the infected flocks to avoid the mutating of the virus into something stronger. and, obviously, to keep it from spreading. by the way, when does the further notice come? heh...

-- C (punk_chicadee@yahoo.com), April 04, 2002.

by the way, if you have visited a poultry farm where the flocks have been infected, you must immediately wash your car afterwards (to help avoid the spreading of the virus). i think this is just an advisory posted by the virginia dept. of agriculture, but all the same it is a very wise advisory to follow. :)

-- C (punk_chicadee@yahoo.com), April 04, 2002.

First, the notification was originally received by me from two show secretarys who were cancelling shows due to the outbreak; The GuilRand show on the 13th in N.C., and the Galax show later this month, in Va. It was recommended to not visit other farms, poultry breeders, swaps, sales, etc, until no further spread has been witnessed. The original outbreak was in Pa, and has spread southward. The only official treatment is to destroy all birds in an affected flock, or farm. You can see postings on the Poultry Information Exchange, also known as the PIE at nevadatea.com. It has also been discussed on several of the poultry forums on Yahoo, and else where, to which I belong.

-- Deidre Edder (edderland@yahoo.com), April 05, 2002.

Found this article on this subject:

Virginia streamlines testing to halt spread of poultry illness

By MICHAEL BUETTNER Associated Press Writer

Published April 2, 2002

RICHMOND, Va. -- State agriculture officials are moving to wider and speedier testing of poultry flocks in an effort to stop an outbreak of avian influenza that has spread to four Virginia counties and to chickens as well as turkeys. Starting Tuesday, positive readings from a single virus test, known as a directigen test, will result in an order to destroy the affected flock, said Elaine Lidholm, director of communications for the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. The directigen procedure tests directly for the virus itself and so provides faster and more reliable results, Lidholm said.

-- BC (desertdweller44@yahoo.com), April 05, 2002.

Has anyone heard if this affected Joel Salatin's flocks in the Shenandoah Valley area of Virginia? While, of course, it is unfortunate for anyone, he has put so much into his methods that it would seem to be particularly awful especially if there is concern about starting a flock over on the same property after an outbreak. I also wonder if this has hit any of the big producers of chickens in North Carolina. That could make the price of chicken take a giant leap up.

-- Colleen (pyramidgreatdanes@erols.com), April 05, 2002.

I was talking to a friend back in VA today and she was mentioning it to me. I told her I saw a post on countryside about it. So sounds like a mess.

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), April 05, 2002.

yeah, VA is a complete mess. as of today, 39 farms infected. 29 of them in one county. over all in at least 4 counties in the valley. numbers rising........aghhhhhhhhh.......gov't has promised aid to farms that had to kill off their flocks

-- C (punk_chicadee@yahoo.com), April 09, 2002.