this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2025
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It's almost like the inhumane, cramped, living conditions we permit a lot of our agriculture industry to have for animals is biting us in the ass.
And before dipshits come in about how that doesn't apply to cage free chickens, etc. Of course that shit still affects overall product prices. One of the businesses along the line between the farm with the chickens and your grocery store aisle is going to raise the price anyway to gouge a little more profit from the system when they have the chance.
As a dairy farmer, i understand i may be somewhat biased on the evaluation of living conditions for my animals. I try very hard to make sure my animals are well cared for and have the space they need. And there is still room for improvement. Compared to a few decades ago, we are doing pretty good in my opinion.
But in the case of poultry, i do have opinions that do align a little bit more with you. While poultry overcrowding and handling practices did play a role in exacerbating the bird flu problem, they were not the sole main driving factor that let this disease go rampant. It helped, but it isnt the whole story.
To see why, all we have to do is look at export markets and their rules.
There is a vaccine for bird flu for poultry. We've had it for years. Poultry farmers do not use it. Because using it limits the countries you can export your product to.
https://www.newsweek.com/why-us-not-vaccinating-poultry-against-bird-flu-2010511
Long story short, it is more economically feasible for producers to nuke entire flocks and start from scratch, (chickens reproduce very quickly), than it is to spend money on vaccination and limit your export market.
This creates constant hot zones that spread to wild populations and migratory birds. This is why seals are dropping dead like flies on the Argentinean coast. I believe the mortality rate is over 90 percent. There are no large scale poultry farms in the falkland islands. Bird flu is so ingrained in migratory bird populations at this point that its crossing over and killing random species that are not confined or used for humans.
Cats that eat infected birds develope encephalopathy and have a massive mortality rate. Its how we first tied bird flu to cattle in the first place. Dairy farm cats are what turned us on to the bird vector. There is also no current vaccine for cattle, or many other animals. Yet.
There will continue to be huge issues with bird flu until we develope good policies to vaccinate all animals in cafo sites and let common sense and science take the lead instead of bad policy and greed. And it may be too late to be honest.
After being on the front lines from day one of the bird flu epidemic in cattle, when we didnt even know what was happening, and seeing how badly the government and officials have handled it, it is an absolute miracle that covid was only as bad as it was.