Great Lakes farms have become a hot spot for bird flu, killing millions of birds and raising fears of a human pandemic.
I’ve heard conflicting information.
- That a vaccine would be lifesaving and egg-saving, and it would be a great thing.
- With a vaccine, exporting chickens/eggs to other countries will be impossible because they won’t want to import eggs/meat potentially carrying bird flu (which wouldn’t be known because the chickens wouldn’t show symptoms). So, if food-cautious countries don’t want vaccinated products because of their potential to harbor bird flu, do I want those products? Would this increase the chance for the flu to jump between species?
I am not knowledgeable enough to know which is the better way forward. Can anyone speak to this?
The benefit here would be to eradicate the virus, so that in about 6 months or so there can be confidence that there’s no issue anymore.
Are they vaccinating all the wild birds?
Yes, I remember reading that they’ve set up vaccination centres for wild birds. No appointments though.
Edit: I had it backwards. It’s by appointment only, and they’ve had very low vaccination numbers despite all the bird calls.
This is great news. I wish it was something regular people could buy. I’d add it to my bird feeders.
