This is a great reminder of how important it is to support local farmers and small operations, which increase the resilience of the system as a whole.
This is a great reminder of how important it is to support local farmers and small operations, which increase the resilience of the system as a whole.
Free range birds are able to interact and spread the disease more easily than the caged birds which can be quarantined. At least in my location all the cage free inventory is totally wiped out.
In any case where are talking about a virus which an antibiotic won't touch at all.
Modern large farms have very strict bio controls. Things like: You shower before entering the barn (there is a shower in the barn entrance). Then you wear only approved clothing. Your shoes are disinfected as part of this process. then when you leave you reverse the process. If you enter one barn you are not allowed in a different barn for a week.
This isn't true, some types of antibiotics are routinely used as a preventative measure on chicken farms.
> Both FDA and the World Health Organization (WHO) rank antibiotics relative to their importance in human medicine. The highest ranking is “critically important.” Antibiotics in this category are used sparingly to treat sick birds. Antibiotics in other less-important classes may be used in chicken production to maintain poultry health and welfare, including for disease prevention, control and treatment purposes.
https://www.nationalchickencouncil.org/questions-answers-ant...
The fun thing is - nobody knows exactly why this happens. There's a bunch of hypotheses, but they're exceptionally hand-wavy.