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>If you feel that what you read below are violations of avian culling norms

>please do call up the numbers below.

 

 

As yet, there are no methods of

high-volume avian culling that meet humane

standards, despite repeated pleas for better

methods to be developed from ranking officials of

WHO, the OIE, and the International Society for

Infectious Diseases. See below.

 

 

---------------

 

Depopulation Methods for a Commercial Layer Flock: Part 1 and 2

 

A. Bruce Webster, Extension Poultry Scientist ,

University of Georgia College of Agricultural and

Environmental Sciences.

 

June 2007

 

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/843/depopulation-methods-for-a-commercial\

-layer-flock-part-1-and-2

 

 

 

Part 1

 

Avian influenza (AI) is a serious threat to

poultry, and now the H5N1 AI virus is dangerous

to humans as well. Eradication is considered to

be the only viable solution to control the

disease when it occurs. This generally means mass

depopulation of flocks found to be positive for

AI, and perhaps neighboring flocks as well.

Various methods to depopulate flocks of poultry

in emergency situations have been considered.

Among these are cervical dislocation, water-based

foam killing, poisoning with avicides, and gas

killing. How viable are any of these methods for

commercial caged layer flocks? A special problem

of the commercial egg industry is that caged

laying hens must be handled individually during

removal.

 

 

 

 

 

Cervical Dislocation.

 

This method requires each bird to be killed

individually. Training and skill is necessary to

kill birds humanely, and fatigue would be a

problem if a person must kill a large number of

birds in a day. A person fully dressed in

personal protection equipment (PPE) could become

overheated and be tempted to remove parts of it

for the sake of comfort. The repetitious reaching

into cages and handling of struggling hens would

create abundant opportunities for protective

suits to snag and tear on projections. Large

numbers of people would be required to depopulate

a house quickly. Hens produce strong, convulsive

wing-flapping after cervical dislocation. Birds

which are killed in rapid succession by this

method are difficult to contain due to the

violence of these convulsions and raise a lot of

dust, which could be contaminated by AI virus.

 

 

 

Cervical dislocation may be suitable for

depopulation of small flocks in the absence of a

better method, but is unlikely to be appropriate

for commercial flocks. In Canada, a neck breaking

device has been tested which helps remove human

error from the killing procedure. The birds are

carried from the house to the device.

 

 

 

 

 

Water-Based Foam.

 

This method uses medium expansion water-based

foam (similar to fire-fighting foam) to cover

birds. The performance standards of the foam have

been stipulated by the USDA-APHIS in the

document, “USDA-APHIS Performance Standards for

the Use of Water-Based Foam as a Method of Mass

Depopulation of Domestic Poultry.” The foam

lodges in the trachea of a bird and prevents it

from breathing. While it may not be possible to

characterize foam killing as euthanasia, the

method has features which make it very attractive

for mass depopulation in situations where there

is physical or biological danger to humans. Since

the foam spreads well and builds up easily to

depths above the height of poultry, a

floor-housed flock can be quickly killed. Only

one person must enter the house to operate the

foam generator. This person does not have to

handle live birds and can finish the job with

little threat to the integrity of PPE. The foam

suppresses dust, and can be impregnated with

antimicrobial agents. Unfortunately, the foam

does not penetrate well into cages nor hold its

consistency inside the cage, so the foam method

does not appear be viable at this time for mass

depopulation of commercial caged layer flocks. It

may also be difficult to get medium expansion

foam to build up on slats, particularly if these

are raised above floor level, so the method may

not be ideal for layer breeder houses or certain

designs of cage free houses.

 

 

 

Avicides.

 

An avicide is a poison that is more toxic to

birds than to other vertebrate species, however,

the substance may still be dangerous to

non-avians. Conceivably, the best way to deliver

an avicide would be through the water, but it

might also be put into the feed. Uncontaminated

water or feed would have to be cleared from

drinker or feeder systems before an avicide could

reach the flock. Extensive preparation of the

house holding the flock would not otherwise be

required. Relative to other methods, this

approach would be slow because birds would have

to consume enough poison to kill them. Hens

having taken non-lethal doses might stop drinking

or eating due to malaise from the effects of the

avicide. A preliminary trial to evaluate a

water-borne avicide for flock depopulation in

another part of the world was reportedly less

successful than hoped for, even when the flock

was deprived of water before administration of

the avicide. A flock with a disease necessitating

depopulation may have many individuals off water

or feed, making the timely delivery of an avicide

impossible.

 

 

 

Other Methods.

 

Electrocution and high speed maceration have been

tried in various parts of the world as methods

for flock depopulation. Both require carrying

live birds to the apparatus intended to kill

them. These methods have the same problems

regarding the amount of human labor and threat to

integrity of PPE as do other methods which

involve handling of individual birds.

 

 

 

The feather cover of laying hens insulates the

birds and makes it difficult to deliver a killing

charge of electricity. As a result, the

electrocution method can have many hens pass

through the killing apparatus alive.

 

Instantaneous maceration [How “instantaneous” is

it?] can be humane if conducted properly, but is

esthetically displeasing to the public. It also

creates potential to release bits of tissue,

blood and bodily fluids into the environment

around the mascerator, and the mass of ground

birds would have to be carefully managed to

prevent spills or seepage. These problems make

maceration problematic for AI control.

 

 

 

Of the mass depopulation methods considered so

far, foam suffocation would be the best option

for a floor-housed flock with no structures for

hens to climb on to escape the foam. None of the

methods are desirable to deal with an H5N1 AI

outbreak in a caged layer flock. Part 2 of this

series will discuss gas killing.

 

 

 

 

 

Part 2

 

Part 1 of this two-part series considered

cervical dislocation, water-based foam killing,

poisoning with avicides, electrocution, and

masceration as mass depopulation methods. All

were inadequate for caged commercial layer flocks

when dealing with H5N1 AI. Gas killing will be

discussed here.

 

 

 

 

 

Gas Killing

 

Although poisonous gases such as carbon monoxide

and cyanide gas have been tried in various

nations to depopulate poultry flocks, carbon

dioxide, a non-poisonous gas, has been the

preponderant choice. Carbon dioxide is relatively

inexpensive and normally is readily available.

Given enough exposure time, 40% CO2 in air is

sufficient to kill chickens (Gerritzen et al.,

2004). Concentrations above 55% will kill birds

quickly (Mohan Raj and Gregory, 1990). Gas

killing requires the gas mixture to be contained.

This can be done using portable chambers,

chambers assembled on site, or by using the

interior of the building in which the flock is

housed.

 

 

 

Portable Chambers..

 

The MAK (modified atmosphere killing) cart, used

in the U.S. egg industry for spent hen removal,

is an example of a portable chamber. Live birds

must be caught and placed into the chamber, which

is kept filled with a stunning atmosphere of CO2.

Since the carts are rolled into the house,

killing takes place immediately after the hens

are caught, minimizing any distress that the

birds might experience. Relatively little CO2 is

used, i.e., about 108 ft3 (13 lb) CO2/1000 hens

for the MAK cart (Webster et al. 1996). This

method is probably the most feasible alternative

for depopulating caged layer flocks when there is

little disease danger to humans. However,

numerous carts and people are needed to

depopulate a house quickly, and it would be

difficult to maintain the integrity of personal

protection equipment (PPE) due to worker

discomfort and snagging of clothing on projection

in the work environment.

 

 

 

Chambers Assembled Onsite.

 

The tenting method, in which flocks of

floor-housed birds are enfolded in large sheets

of plastic, is an example of a chamber assembled

onsite. Tenting is most effective for floor

housed broilers, which are relatively inactive

and can be enfolded in place. The method can be

adapted somewhat for active birds such as

floor-housed commercial laying hens or breeders

by setting up an enclosure in a free area of the

house and driving birds into it.

 

People are required to drive the birds, and the

disturbance raises a lot of dust. Workers would

have to be in the house for a lengthy time and

would experience discomfort when fully suited in

PPE.

 

The tenting method is not suitable for caged layer flocks.

 

 

 

A chamber could be assembled outside a commercial

layer house to kill hens removed from the house

in pullet carts. This approach would be no

improvement over the portable chamber approach,

and somewhat increases the difficulty of bird

handling in regard to loading and unloading of

pullet carts. In Canada, a chamber has been

designed which is set up outside the layer house

and the hens carried out by hand and put into it.

 

 

 

Whole-House Gassing.

 

This method reduces the exposure of people to

live, potentially AIinfected hens since there is

no need for a lot of people to enter the house

before the birds are dead. Caged birds would

still have to removed individually from cages.

Although the integrity of PPE would be an issue,

the problem should be more manageable than when

catching live birds.

 

 

 

Modern commercial layer houses should not be

difficult to seal for gas killing, if adequate

materials are available. The fans and air inlets

would be the major sites of gas leakage and would

have to be covered. Loose fitting doors should

also be sealed. The house must not be sealed

completely. Some openings in the upper part of

the house are necessary to allow air to escape as

CO2 is introduced. Tests in Canada and other

nations have shown that the injection of the

equivalent of an entire house volume of CO2 is

necessary to achieve a final CO2 concentration of

60% in a layer house. Rapid injection of such a

large volume of CO2 can cause gas lines to freeze

up and can also produce extremely low

temperatures in the house near the injection

point. Special gas delivery technology is

necessary to prevent lines being blocked with

frozen CO2 and avoid bird distress due to

excessive cold. Such technology must be available

when needed for whole-house gassing to be viable

for mass depopulation.

 

 

 

A high-rise commercial layer house that has

dimensions 500 ft L x 54 ft W x 16 ft H has an

interior volume of roughly 432,000 ft3, including

the living space and manure storage area.

Assuming for the sake of argument that 10% of

this space is occupied by birds, equipment,

manure and structural materials, roughly 390,000

ft3 of CO2 would be necessary to gas the house.

This translates to about 24 tons of liquid CO2

needed for delivery to the site. The price of CO2

varies regionally, but using a ball-park price of

$75.00 per ton, the cost of the CO2 alone would

be $1,800.00 for one house. A single story house

with stacked cage batteries and manure removal on

belts should need half the amount of CO2 to kill

the same number of birds. If multiple layer

houses had to be depopulated in a quarantine

zone, demand for CO2 could outstrip the local

supply and drive up prices due to logistic

difficulties getting CO2 delivered from other

areas. In a worst case scenario, it may not be

possible to get enough CO2 in time.

 

 

 

Conclusion

 

There does not appear to be a good method at

present for mass depopulation of commercial caged

layer flocks in situations where humans could be

infected by a disease carried by the birds.

Existing methods either require extensive

human-bird contact, which would probably be

refused by the people assigned to remove the

birds, or are likely to be impractical in the

time frame required. Should an emergency arise

that calls for mass depopulation of commercial

caged layer flocks, it is difficult to think what

might actually happen.

 

 

 

Although a mass depopulation event would be hard

for any poultry company to cope with, it would be

particularly devastating for an egg company with

flocks concentrated in a complex of houses on one

property. This and the lack of a good

depopulation procedure make biosecurity a special

imperative for the layer industry; even more so

than for other sectors of the poultry industry.

If an AI outbreak occurs in the vicinity of a

commercial layer flock, vaccination of the flock

may help contain the outbreak without going to

the extreme of mass depopulation, provided

biosecurity procedures have kept the flock

shielded from the virus. Egg companies should

seriously consider upgrading their biosecurity

efforts.

 

 

 

 

 

References

 

Gerritzen, M.A., B. Lambooij, H. Reimert, A.

Stegeman, and B. Spruijt. 2004. On-farm

euthanasia of broiler chickens: effects of

different gas mixtures on behavior and brain

activity. Poultry Science 83:1294-1301.

 

 

 

Mohan Raj, A.D., and N.G. Gregory. 1990.

Investigation into the batch stunning/killing of

chickens using carbon dioxide or argon-induced

hypoxia. Research in Veterinary Science

49:364-366.

 

 

 

Webster, A.B., D.L. Fletcher, and S.I. Savage.

1996. Humane on-farm killing of spent hens.

Journal of Applied Poultry Research 5:191-200.

 

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

Telephone: 360-579-2505

Fax: 360-579-2575

E-mail: anmlpepl

Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

[ANIMAL PEOPLE is the leading independent

newspaper providing original investigative

coverage of animal protection worldwide, founded

in 1992. Our readership of 30,000-plus includes

the decision-makers at more than 10,000 animal

protection organizations. We have no alignment

or affiliation with any other entity. $24/year;

for free sample, send address.]

 

 

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Guest guest

Once flu breaks out, is culling the only appropriate solution?

 

On 7/30/07, Merritt Clifton <anmlpepl wrote:

>

> >If you feel that what you read below are violations of avian culling

> norms

> >please do call up the numbers below.

>

> As yet, there are no methods of

> high-volume avian culling that meet humane

> standards, despite repeated pleas for better

> methods to be developed from ranking officials of

> WHO, the OIE, and the International Society for

> Infectious Diseases. See below.

>

> ---------------

>

> Depopulation Methods for a Commercial Layer Flock: Part 1 and 2

>

> A. Bruce Webster, Extension Poultry Scientist ,

> University of Georgia College of Agricultural and

> Environmental Sciences.

>

> June 2007

>

>

>

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/843/depopulation-methods-for-a-commercial\

-layer-flock-part-1-and-2

>

> Part 1

>

> Avian influenza (AI) is a serious threat to

> poultry, and now the H5N1 AI virus is dangerous

> to humans as well. Eradication is considered to

> be the only viable solution to control the

> disease when it occurs. This generally means mass

> depopulation of flocks found to be positive for

> AI, and perhaps neighboring flocks as well.

> Various methods to depopulate flocks of poultry

> in emergency situations have been considered.

> Among these are cervical dislocation, water-based

> foam killing, poisoning with avicides, and gas

> killing. How viable are any of these methods for

> commercial caged layer flocks? A special problem

> of the commercial egg industry is that caged

> laying hens must be handled individually during

> removal.

>

> Cervical Dislocation.

>

> This method requires each bird to be killed

> individually. Training and skill is necessary to

> kill birds humanely, and fatigue would be a

> problem if a person must kill a large number of

> birds in a day. A person fully dressed in

> personal protection equipment (PPE) could become

> overheated and be tempted to remove parts of it

> for the sake of comfort. The repetitious reaching

> into cages and handling of struggling hens would

> create abundant opportunities for protective

> suits to snag and tear on projections. Large

> numbers of people would be required to depopulate

> a house quickly. Hens produce strong, convulsive

> wing-flapping after cervical dislocation. Birds

> which are killed in rapid succession by this

> method are difficult to contain due to the

> violence of these convulsions and raise a lot of

> dust, which could be contaminated by AI virus.

>

> Cervical dislocation may be suitable for

> depopulation of small flocks in the absence of a

> better method, but is unlikely to be appropriate

> for commercial flocks. In Canada, a neck breaking

> device has been tested which helps remove human

> error from the killing procedure. The birds are

> carried from the house to the device.

>

> Water-Based Foam.

>

> This method uses medium expansion water-based

> foam (similar to fire-fighting foam) to cover

> birds. The performance standards of the foam have

> been stipulated by the USDA-APHIS in the

> document, " USDA-APHIS Performance Standards for

> the Use of Water-Based Foam as a Method of Mass

> Depopulation of Domestic Poultry. " The foam

> lodges in the trachea of a bird and prevents it

> from breathing. While it may not be possible to

> characterize foam killing as euthanasia, the

> method has features which make it very attractive

> for mass depopulation in situations where there

> is physical or biological danger to humans. Since

> the foam spreads well and builds up easily to

> depths above the height of poultry, a

> floor-housed flock can be quickly killed. Only

> one person must enter the house to operate the

> foam generator. This person does not have to

> handle live birds and can finish the job with

> little threat to the integrity of PPE. The foam

> suppresses dust, and can be impregnated with

> antimicrobial agents. Unfortunately, the foam

> does not penetrate well into cages nor hold its

> consistency inside the cage, so the foam method

> does not appear be viable at this time for mass

> depopulation of commercial caged layer flocks. It

> may also be difficult to get medium expansion

> foam to build up on slats, particularly if these

> are raised above floor level, so the method may

> not be ideal for layer breeder houses or certain

> designs of cage free houses.

>

> Avicides.

>

> An avicide is a poison that is more toxic to

> birds than to other vertebrate species, however,

> the substance may still be dangerous to

> non-avians. Conceivably, the best way to deliver

> an avicide would be through the water, but it

> might also be put into the feed. Uncontaminated

> water or feed would have to be cleared from

> drinker or feeder systems before an avicide could

> reach the flock. Extensive preparation of the

> house holding the flock would not otherwise be

> required. Relative to other methods, this

> approach would be slow because birds would have

> to consume enough poison to kill them. Hens

> having taken non-lethal doses might stop drinking

> or eating due to malaise from the effects of the

> avicide. A preliminary trial to evaluate a

> water-borne avicide for flock depopulation in

> another part of the world was reportedly less

> successful than hoped for, even when the flock

> was deprived of water before administration of

> the avicide. A flock with a disease necessitating

> depopulation may have many individuals off water

> or feed, making the timely delivery of an avicide

> impossible.

>

> Other Methods.

>

> Electrocution and high speed maceration have been

> tried in various parts of the world as methods

> for flock depopulation. Both require carrying

> live birds to the apparatus intended to kill

> them. These methods have the same problems

> regarding the amount of human labor and threat to

> integrity of PPE as do other methods which

> involve handling of individual birds.

>

> The feather cover of laying hens insulates the

> birds and makes it difficult to deliver a killing

> charge of electricity. As a result, the

> electrocution method can have many hens pass

> through the killing apparatus alive.

>

> Instantaneous maceration [How " instantaneous " is

> it?] can be humane if conducted properly, but is

> esthetically displeasing to the public. It also

> creates potential to release bits of tissue,

> blood and bodily fluids into the environment

> around the mascerator, and the mass of ground

> birds would have to be carefully managed to

> prevent spills or seepage. These problems make

> maceration problematic for AI control.

>

> Of the mass depopulation methods considered so

> far, foam suffocation would be the best option

> for a floor-housed flock with no structures for

> hens to climb on to escape the foam. None of the

> methods are desirable to deal with an H5N1 AI

> outbreak in a caged layer flock. Part 2 of this

> series will discuss gas killing.

>

> Part 2

>

> Part 1 of this two-part series considered

> cervical dislocation, water-based foam killing,

> poisoning with avicides, electrocution, and

> masceration as mass depopulation methods. All

> were inadequate for caged commercial layer flocks

> when dealing with H5N1 AI. Gas killing will be

> discussed here.

>

> Gas Killing

>

> Although poisonous gases such as carbon monoxide

> and cyanide gas have been tried in various

> nations to depopulate poultry flocks, carbon

> dioxide, a non-poisonous gas, has been the

> preponderant choice. Carbon dioxide is relatively

> inexpensive and normally is readily available.

> Given enough exposure time, 40% CO2 in air is

> sufficient to kill chickens (Gerritzen et al.,

> 2004). Concentrations above 55% will kill birds

> quickly (Mohan Raj and Gregory, 1990). Gas

> killing requires the gas mixture to be contained.

> This can be done using portable chambers,

> chambers assembled on site, or by using the

> interior of the building in which the flock is

> housed.

>

> Portable Chambers..

>

> The MAK (modified atmosphere killing) cart, used

> in the U.S. egg industry for spent hen removal,

> is an example of a portable chamber. Live birds

> must be caught and placed into the chamber, which

> is kept filled with a stunning atmosphere of CO2.

> Since the carts are rolled into the house,

> killing takes place immediately after the hens

> are caught, minimizing any distress that the

> birds might experience. Relatively little CO2 is

> used, i.e., about 108 ft3 (13 lb) CO2/1000 hens

> for the MAK cart (Webster et al. 1996). This

> method is probably the most feasible alternative

> for depopulating caged layer flocks when there is

> little disease danger to humans. However,

> numerous carts and people are needed to

> depopulate a house quickly, and it would be

> difficult to maintain the integrity of personal

> protection equipment (PPE) due to worker

> discomfort and snagging of clothing on projection

> in the work environment.

>

> Chambers Assembled Onsite.

>

> The tenting method, in which flocks of

> floor-housed birds are enfolded in large sheets

> of plastic, is an example of a chamber assembled

> onsite. Tenting is most effective for floor

> housed broilers, which are relatively inactive

> and can be enfolded in place. The method can be

> adapted somewhat for active birds such as

> floor-housed commercial laying hens or breeders

> by setting up an enclosure in a free area of the

> house and driving birds into it.

>

> People are required to drive the birds, and the

> disturbance raises a lot of dust. Workers would

> have to be in the house for a lengthy time and

> would experience discomfort when fully suited in

> PPE.

>

> The tenting method is not suitable for caged layer flocks.

>

> A chamber could be assembled outside a commercial

> layer house to kill hens removed from the house

> in pullet carts. This approach would be no

> improvement over the portable chamber approach,

> and somewhat increases the difficulty of bird

> handling in regard to loading and unloading of

> pullet carts. In Canada, a chamber has been

> designed which is set up outside the layer house

> and the hens carried out by hand and put into it.

>

> Whole-House Gassing.

>

> This method reduces the exposure of people to

> live, potentially AIinfected hens since there is

> no need for a lot of people to enter the house

> before the birds are dead. Caged birds would

> still have to removed individually from cages.

> Although the integrity of PPE would be an issue,

> the problem should be more manageable than when

> catching live birds.

>

> Modern commercial layer houses should not be

> difficult to seal for gas killing, if adequate

> materials are available. The fans and air inlets

> would be the major sites of gas leakage and would

> have to be covered. Loose fitting doors should

> also be sealed. The house must not be sealed

> completely. Some openings in the upper part of

> the house are necessary to allow air to escape as

> CO2 is introduced. Tests in Canada and other

> nations have shown that the injection of the

> equivalent of an entire house volume of CO2 is

> necessary to achieve a final CO2 concentration of

> 60% in a layer house. Rapid injection of such a

> large volume of CO2 can cause gas lines to freeze

> up and can also produce extremely low

> temperatures in the house near the injection

> point. Special gas delivery technology is

> necessary to prevent lines being blocked with

> frozen CO2 and avoid bird distress due to

> excessive cold. Such technology must be available

> when needed for whole-house gassing to be viable

> for mass depopulation.

>

> A high-rise commercial layer house that has

> dimensions 500 ft L x 54 ft W x 16 ft H has an

> interior volume of roughly 432,000 ft3, including

> the living space and manure storage area.

> Assuming for the sake of argument that 10% of

> this space is occupied by birds, equipment,

> manure and structural materials, roughly 390,000

> ft3 of CO2 would be necessary to gas the house.

> This translates to about 24 tons of liquid CO2

> needed for delivery to the site. The price of CO2

> varies regionally, but using a ball-park price of

> $75.00 per ton, the cost of the CO2 alone would

> be $1,800.00 for one house. A single story house

> with stacked cage batteries and manure removal on

> belts should need half the amount of CO2 to kill

> the same number of birds. If multiple layer

> houses had to be depopulated in a quarantine

> zone, demand for CO2 could outstrip the local

> supply and drive up prices due to logistic

> difficulties getting CO2 delivered from other

> areas. In a worst case scenario, it may not be

> possible to get enough CO2 in time.

>

> Conclusion

>

> There does not appear to be a good method at

> present for mass depopulation of commercial caged

> layer flocks in situations where humans could be

> infected by a disease carried by the birds.

> Existing methods either require extensive

> human-bird contact, which would probably be

> refused by the people assigned to remove the

> birds, or are likely to be impractical in the

> time frame required. Should an emergency arise

> that calls for mass depopulation of commercial

> caged layer flocks, it is difficult to think what

> might actually happen.

>

> Although a mass depopulation event would be hard

> for any poultry company to cope with, it would be

> particularly devastating for an egg company with

> flocks concentrated in a complex of houses on one

> property. This and the lack of a good

> depopulation procedure make biosecurity a special

> imperative for the layer industry; even more so

> than for other sectors of the poultry industry.

> If an AI outbreak occurs in the vicinity of a

> commercial layer flock, vaccination of the flock

> may help contain the outbreak without going to

> the extreme of mass depopulation, provided

> biosecurity procedures have kept the flock

> shielded from the virus. Egg companies should

> seriously consider upgrading their biosecurity

> efforts.

>

> References

>

> Gerritzen, M.A., B. Lambooij, H. Reimert, A.

> Stegeman, and B. Spruijt. 2004. On-farm

> euthanasia of broiler chickens: effects of

> different gas mixtures on behavior and brain

> activity. Poultry Science 83:1294-1301.

>

> Mohan Raj, A.D., and N.G. Gregory. 1990.

> Investigation into the batch stunning/killing of

> chickens using carbon dioxide or argon-induced

> hypoxia. Research in Veterinary Science

> 49:364-366.

>

> Webster, A.B., D.L. Fletcher, and S.I. Savage.

> 1996. Humane on-farm killing of spent hens.

> Journal of Applied Poultry Research 5:191-200.

>

> --

> Merritt Clifton

> Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

> P.O. Box 960

> Clinton, WA 98236

>

> Telephone: 360-579-2505

> Fax: 360-579-2575

> E-mail: anmlpepl <anmlpepl%40whidbey.com>

> Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

>

> [ANIMAL PEOPLE is the leading independent

> newspaper providing original investigative

> coverage of animal protection worldwide, founded

> in 1992. Our readership of 30,000-plus includes

> the decision-makers at more than 10,000 animal

> protection organizations. We have no alignment

> or affiliation with any other entity. $24/year;

> for free sample, send address.]

>

>

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>Once flu breaks out, is culling the only appropriate solution?

 

 

Culling is the only appropriate solution in the opinions of

the World Health Organization and International Society for

Infectious Diseases, since there is no known treatment protocol,

and no certain means of preventing transmission and mutation of the

virus other than killing the immediate host.

 

Vaccination can isolate an outbreak, and can protect flocks.

Several nations including China have relied very heavily on

vaccination to try to stop H5N1, with some evident success.

 

However, there is a huge risk that low-quality vaccines can

strengthen the H5N1 virus instead of killing it; much difficulty in

policing the quality of vaccines in several nations, especially

China, where producing fake vaccines is a major industry; and the

perennial problem with vaccination is that it is extremely difficult

(often impossible) to use a simple blood test to distinguish an

animal who has been vaccinated from an animal who is harboring an

infection in the latent transmissible phase.

 

As in the efforts to eradicate rabies and to ensure the

safety of pet food, it would be extremely helpful if China could

establish and enforce global food and drug quality standards.

 

 

 

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

Telephone: 360-579-2505

Fax: 360-579-2575

E-mail: anmlpepl

Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

[ANIMAL PEOPLE is the leading independent newspaper providing

original investigative coverage of animal protection worldwide,

founded in 1992. Our readership of 30,000-plus includes the

decision-makers at more than 10,000 animal protection organizations.

We have no alignment or affiliation with any other entity. $24/year;

for free sample, send address.]

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