US - Avian influenza has been confirmed in three states, two of which share borders with Georgia. As a precaution, Georgia State Veterinarian Robert Cobb has suspended all poultry exhibitions indefinitely.

The order also suspends poultry shows, sales, swaps and meets in Georgia, including flea markets and auction markets.

Importing and exporting poultry out-of-state is not suspended as long as all state requirements are met. Private sales are also not affected by the suspension.

The Georgia Department of Agriculture urges all poultry producers, including backyard poultry keepers, to be twice as diligent with ensuring biosecurity.

Outdoor birds should be moved into secure housing as any contact with wild birds can potentially spread avian influenza.

All flocks are to be monitored for signs of highly pathogenic avian influenza, such as rapid increase in mortality over several days.

Once again, bird flu is back in the U.S. From 2014 through mid-2015, 48 million chickens and turkeys were killed in the U.S. to prevent the disease’s spread and protect farmers’ profits.

Factory farmers routinely fight to keep images of how poultry are raised out of public view, so consumers do not lose their appetites and will continue eating their products. Industrial farmers also fight hard to keep images of how chickens and turkeys are “euthanized” out of the public view.

It is easy to see why. To prevent the spread of bird flu, healthy, floor-reared turkeys and broiler chickens are herded into an enclosed area where they were administered propylene glycol foam to suffocate them. Michael Blackwell, chief veterinary officer at The Humane Society of the United States,  https://www.theguardian.com/vital-signs/2015/jul/14/bird-flu-devastation-highlights-unsustainability-of-commercial-chicken-farming" rel="nofollow - likens death by foam to “cuffing a person’s mouth and nose, during which time you are very much aware that your breathing has been precluded.”

“Ventilation shutdown” is also used to kill healthy birds and prevent the spread of the flu. It raises the barn temperature to at least 104F for a minimum of three hours killing the entire flock—a method so extreme that even factory farmers admit it is cruel. During the 2015 outbreak, “Round the clock incinerators and crews in hazmat suits,” were required for the bird depopulation reported Fortune—a sequence likely to occur again.

Factory farmers like to blame bird flu on “migratory birds,” denying that high-volume production methods allow the spread of the disease. But the fact is, factory farms house 300,000 or more egg layers in one barn versus only tens of thousands of birds in “broiler barns” which is why the flu spreads so quickly among egg-laying hens.

Medclinician