this post was submitted on 28 Jan 2025
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H5N1 Avian Flu aka. HPAI
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I buy more of them when they die. Killing them because they have bird flu destroys their ability to adapt and combat that strain. Ones that don't die aren't completely immune from it, but they're pretty close.
I only have like 6 hens; I don't need to take the same precautions that farms do.
And you’re not worried to get infected?
No? H5N1 is rarely transmissible to humans. The biggest fear is a mutation that allows human-to-human transmission.
Ah yes, not preventing the spread of disease to prevent the spread of disease. 5D chess champ
No, not preventing the spread of disease because chickens are cheap and the ones that survive are stronger. Basic natural selection. It's just less acceptable to do this to the human population.
You're missing the point. You're arguing for a natural "solution" to a natural problem. Nature (the chickens immune system) has been trying to solve for diseases attacking it for millions of years. Letting that approach play out may work occasionally in practice, but it completely discounts disease mutation, the long term immune system effects diseases can have on the "stronger" ones that survive (not every encounter with all diseases actually leads to longterm immunity, some are actually significantly worse the second time around due to lasting damage inflicted upon the immune system or genetics), and a host of other unaccounted variables like the extreme changes in exposure vectors we've subjected the animals to.
Diseases typically mutate to become milder over time, not stronger. You can't spread when you kill the host; and mine are isolated, not in a large population so something like this only occurs rarely. There's a level of reasonability here that I feel isn't taken into account. There's no point in me taking all of these measures for a tiny flock.