Haven’t found an answer to this question.
LPAI? Unlikely. HPAI? Possibly.
the reason they found the low path h5n1 was because they were culling the swans.
But they were only doing the culling of a few (hundred) to bring the over-population down, not due to any disease.
That should read: AND they were only….
How can they test either, unless birds start dropping out of the sky. Would they capture birds, hold them while they await rest results then release them if negative? Can they catch an entire flock? Unlikely. This would defeat the purpose - if a few birds have high path, then they’ve already exposed many others in the flock already. But if the gov’t can only catch a few in a flock, wait for results, etc. it’s too late - the rest have flown the coop (so to speak) and are busy infecting other birds. Domestic (chikcen farms, etc.) is easy. However, if birds start dropping out of the sky and/or the public really starts to panic (even if the threat is low) you’ll start to see some things happen.
We had an over-population of swans??
the swans being culled were a type not from Michigan. They are mean and are overpopulating the area denying breeding grounds to the swans that live there. Think of it as the police kicking out a bunch of strangers having a party at your house. Kinda like, “We had to destroy the village to save it”. we have to kill them to save the others. Like killing all the fish in a small stretch of a river so you can count the dead ones to see how many live in the river. We do some strange shite in Mich.
Got it. They are an ecologically alien species to Mich.
Yes, the US does cull for LP AI in domestic poultry.
I doubt they would expend much effort on it in wild birds. Cost = benefit ratio would be too high.
There is a bird sanctuary near here on the San Francisco Bay mud flats where they are testing for bird flu. They had a photo in our local paper, The Argus, of a fellow with a net that was ‘trapping’ small birds for testing kind of randomly out of the habitat.
They were doing a harmless quick swab and then just releasing them.
They have about 100 types of birds, mostly shorebirds waders, ducks and some migrating birds.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006 8:17 AM CDT South Korea Bans U.S. Poultry
By Kim Souza
The Morning News • ksouza@nwaonline.net
Domestic poultry headed for South Korea was sidelined for the past two weeks while two migratory swans were tested for avian flu in Michigan.
All U.S. poultry headed for South Korea was halted as the federal government awaited final test results, Kristin Scuderi, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, confirmed to The Morning News.
The tests confirmed the H5N1 strain of avian flu found in the two wild swans is considered a low pathogenic form and poses no threat to human health, the USDA announced Monday.
The United States expected poultry shipments to South Korean to resume within the next few days, Scuderi said.
Representatives of the National Chicken Council said they hoped the latest findings released by the National Veterinary Service Laboratories would be enough to persuade the Republic of Korea to resume importing U.S. poultry.
“Korea received 38,382 metric tons of broiler parts from January through June of this year, which puts them in the top ten importing countries,” said Richard Lobb, National Chicken Council spokesman.
In addition to South Korea, Mexico also cut off poultry exported from the state of Michigan, according to the USDA. The National Chicken Council said there is no commercial broiler production in Michigan but there is some turkey production in the state.
Springdale-based Tyson Foods Inc. said the company does not own any poultry, beef or pork operations in Michigan.
Tyson Foods said the company had some chicken orders from South Korea that were sidelined because of the ban, but hoped to soon resume shipments.
“South Korea does not make up a large part of our international poultry sales but they are an important trade partner for Tyson. They buy hides and pork from Tyson,” said company spokesman Gary Mickelson.
South Korea was a large buyer of U.S. beef and an important export source for Tyson prior to the beef ban in place since the first domestic case of mad cow was found in December 2003.
In related news, Tyson confirmed two of their beef processing plants recently were visited by South Korean inspectors who are revisiting six American processing plants in an effort to reopen beef exports.
“Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev on customs tariff regulation of poultry imports to Russia: August 21, 2006 Bocharov Ruchei, Sochi at www.kremlin.ru As you know, the United States is the biggest supplier of poultry imports on the Russian market with an import quota of around 75–80 percent.
Rounding the figures off, they have a quota of around 800,000 tons. We have an import quota of 1.15 million tons of chicken in total, and 800,000 tons of this is the American quota. This is a considerable preference that has been accorded to our American colleagues, but this was tied to Russia’s becoming a member of the World Trade Organisation, so that we could act on an equal footing with our partners, including the European Union countries, where there are sizeable subsidies both for production and exports. Now, though, we are in a situation where the accession negotiations are dragging on and it is not expedient to continue maintaining such a high quota for American producers. They are earning around $1 billion on the Russian market. Given that the negotiations are dragging on, it would make sense to revise this quota. Clearly, we will raise this question with our American colleagues now.
PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN: So, you propose redistributing the quota among other exporters?
ALEXEI GORDEYEV: Yes, among other countries. Brazil, in particular, has been actively bringing up this issue. They say that they have genuine potential that they are currently developing, but that they cannot enter the Russian market on competitive conditions because of our country-based quotas.”
One could think of many reasons why the USA might want to belittle the threat of the Michigan H5N1. One being the exports of poultry.
Closed to maintain Forum speed.