Stephanie Strom writes in the NYT that deadly avian flu viruses have affected more than 33 million turkeys, chickens and ducks since December and while farmers in Asia and elsewhere have had to grapple with avian flu epidemics, farmers in the United States have never confronted a health crisis among livestock like this one. Almost every day brings confirmation by the Agriculture Department that at least another hundred thousand or so birds must be destroyed; some days, the number exceeds several million.
Mounds and mounds of carcasses have piled up in vast barns in the northwestern corner of Iowa, where farmers and officials have been appealing for help to deal with disposal of such a vast number of flocks. Workers wearing masks and protective gear have scrambled to clear the barns, but it is a painstaking process. In these close-knit towns that include many descendants of the area’s original Dutch settlers, some farmers have resorted to burying dead birds in hurriedly dug trenches on their own land, while officials weighed using landfills and mobile incinerators. Federal lawmakers from Iowa called on the Agriculture Department to do more to help farmers with the culling and disposal of birds. The federal agency has made tens of millions of dollars available for assistance, and noted that it is deploying hundreds of staff members, including 85 in Iowa.
Iowa, where one in every five eggs consumed in the country is laid, has been the hardest hit: More than 40 percent of its egg-laying hens are dead or dying. Many are in this region, where barns house up to half a million birds in cages stacked to the rafters. The high density of these egg farms helps to explain why the flu, which can kill 90 percent or more of a flock within 48 hours, is decimating more birds in Iowa than in other states. “It’s important that we get that done fairly soon and we need landfills to be reasonable in terms of the charges they’re assessing and willing to take these birds,” says US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “But at some point in time we’ve basically got to get rid of these birds because otherwise we’re going to begin to have some other issues in terms of odor and flies and things of that nature that people are obviously not going to want to deal with.”
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 17 2015, @12:58AM
Here's your second chance, troops! Clean up dead birds, for Obama! GOD BLESS AMERICA
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 17 2015, @01:09AM
I saw a movie on TV last weekend called Jughead or something like that and it was about troops in Iraq.
The theme song went something like:
I didn't really understand what it was trying to say. Since you know about the army, can you explain it?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 17 2015, @05:47PM
That movie has nothing to do with Iraq, and everything to do with your family, AC.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 17 2015, @01:00AM
I keep hearing that there are starving people in Africa. Why not just ship them to Africa? Even if they can't eat them due to the disease, they can still use the carcasses as fertilizer for the crops they can grow there.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday May 17 2015, @02:02AM
Let's feed the Africans this. [youtube.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 17 2015, @02:19AM
I ran that link through my penis detecting software, and the rating is off the scale. Unless you can convince me that it's safe to watch, I just don't think I can watch it. I've never encountered a video that received a penis score of 47 on a scale of 0-10.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 17 2015, @05:49PM
Any takers? I'm curious as to what that links to, but not curious enough to actually click it myself.
(Score: 2) by vux984 on Sunday May 17 2015, @07:29PM
Youtube blocked the video as age restricted; but from the description and comments it sounds its the dog poo eating sequence from the John Waters film Pink Flamingos. Its probably not THAT bad, I like John Waters work... but he does push the boundaries of good taste; and I don't really need to watch anyone eat dog shit; so i didn't bother to sign in to watch it.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Reziac on Monday May 18 2015, @02:57AM
I'll take that as an honest question. Basically you don't eat stuff infected with a virus that can adapt to and infect your own species. The reason they're not being used as food is because influenza viruses readily jump species, and a common triad is pigs-birds-humans. (It would be risky as dog food too, given that another flu virus has recently jumped into the canine population.) Might be nothing happens, or might be we'd suddenly have a flu epidemic for which humans have no resistance, but it would certainly be tempting fate.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by looorg on Sunday May 17 2015, @01:26AM
Nuggets for everyone! Heat kills bacteria and if it doesn't kill you it can only make you stronger ... Right?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 17 2015, @01:38AM
That's actually true, given proper cooking temperature even these diseased birds could be made edible. The problem arises from the fact that many people do not cook their food properly.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by HiThere on Sunday May 17 2015, @07:33PM
That all depends on how quickly after they die they are cooked/preserved. And some microbes create poisons that aren't degraded by any reasonable temperature. I'm not sure even pressure cooking them would make them safe at any temperature that didn't degrade it as a food...still, with the proper series of cooking steps and reagents it might be possible. But it would take a special-built set up and what you ended up with would, at best, resemble "potted meat food product".
Now as to how long that would take, and how much it would cost..... well, if you could sell it, it might possibly pay for itself, eventually. Say as an emergency supply.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 17 2015, @01:40AM
It will give you DIARRHEA .
DDD IIIII AAAA RRRRR RRRRR H H EEEE AAAA
D D I A A R R R R H H E A A
D D I AAAA RRRRR RRRRR HHHH EEEE AAAA
D D I A A R R R R H H E A A
DDD IIIII A A R R R R H H EEEE A A
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 17 2015, @05:59PM
From the SALMONELLA.
SSSS AAAA....Screw this, I don't have time.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 17 2015, @01:33AM
The tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free. Let them eat chicken and die of food poisoning.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 17 2015, @01:42AM
The Jungle (1906) [wikipedia.org]
Bitter Harvest (1981) [wikipedia.org]
The more you learn about how your food is produced, the less you want to eat animal-based food.
The indifference|non-existence of regulators in those stories is appalling.
-- gewg_
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 17 2015, @01:46AM
What the fuck?
Did you seriously just try to back up your asinine claims using a novel from over 100 years ago, and a fictional made-for-TV special?!
I never expect good evidence out of you, but holy fuck, this case is bad even by your pathetically low standards!
(Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 17 2015, @01:49AM
Why the heck was that modded "informative"?
He referenced works of fiction!
Fiction is, by definition, not real!
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 17 2015, @01:58AM
Get a user account and you can have mod points too
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 17 2015, @01:53AM
Repeat after me: fictional works are not evidence!
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 17 2015, @01:57AM
Fictional evidence led to the passage of the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906
(Score: 2) by Tork on Sunday May 17 2015, @04:10AM
Unless we're talking about Skynet. ;)
Slashdolt Logic: "25 year old jokes about sharks and lasers are +5, Funny." 💩
(Score: 3, Insightful) by captain normal on Sunday May 17 2015, @04:52AM
Fictional evidence is used every days in courts all over the US. The congresses of the US and all the states pass laws based on fictional evidence. What have you got against fictional evidence?
"It is easier to fool someone than it is to convince them that they have been fooled" Mark Twain
(Score: 2) by Hartree on Sunday May 17 2015, @05:30AM
They're usually the most effective evidence. A documentary setting out your position will only be watched by those already converted or that you bamboozle into watching it, like an advertisement before an Epic Fails video on Youtube.
Get a successful fictional movie or book out that extols your position and not only will you convince large numbers, you'll make a tidy profit when they willingly buy it at Amazon or Netflix (or watch commercials that others bamboozle them into watching).
(Score: 2, Informative) by Eunuchswear on Sunday May 17 2015, @08:32AM
Case in point -- whole masses of AGW deniers seem to think Chrichton's State of Fear was some kind of documentary.
Watch this Heartland Institute video [youtube.com]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 17 2015, @09:53AM
Woot?
fictional works are not evidence!
Surely, you jest, my dear AC! Of course they are! The very best sort of evidence! Have you heard of:
The Bible
The Wealth of Nations
Robinson Crusoe
Atlas Shrugged
9-11 Report
Reefer Madness
Very effective fiction! I hear Rubio is going to "write" a book, too!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 17 2015, @01:55AM
Got any real sources? Ones that aren't made-for-telly dramas or Edwardian era novels?
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Sunday May 17 2015, @07:38PM
FWIW, the Jungle wasn't exactly fiction. It was closer to a docudrama, sort of half-way between fiction and fact.
Also there have been quite recent reports (within the last decade) of meat plant inspectors being refused entry to plants. IIRC the result of that was to cut the number of meat plant inspectors. Now I will agree that this isn't proof that anything nefarious is happening. But I find it convincing circumstantial evidence.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 17 2015, @02:02AM
Those are the worst citations I've ever seen anybody make, ever. Not only are they fictional, but they're decades or even a century out of date.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 17 2015, @02:12AM
You're lucky this isn't Wikipedia. Even they would laugh at you for citing old fictional movies and novels as references, and they'll accept pathetically bad references over there.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 17 2015, @02:22AM
gewg, what are we supposed to learn from these made up stories? I once read a book about people in the desert who would collect the poopoo of big desert worms and they'd eat it to give themselves magical powers. But since it was a fictional story that means it didn't actually happen.
(Score: 1) by Eunuchswear on Sunday May 17 2015, @08:30AM
Well then, you missed a lot of what was going on in Dune, the first SF book to talk about ecology.
Watch this Heartland Institute video [youtube.com]
(Score: 1, Disagree) by albert on Sunday May 17 2015, @02:38AM
I really don't care if conditions make the chickens look miserable. They are chickens. If live plucking or cooking makes them taste better or reduces costs, go for it.
Biosafety is another matter. All of us are affected, even those who don't eat chicken. There should be no need to vaccinate a chicken. There should be no need to give antibiotics to a chicken. These aren't people with the right to roam about, traveling in crowded buses and visiting church. They are chickens. They are supposed to stay inside, quarantined from every other farm and from wildlife. Contact with humans should be minimized and, in our robotic future, ideally eliminated.
These farmers failed. We shouldn't help them. We should punish them for putting all of us at risk. Disease doesn't spread without stupidity, laziness, or malice.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by GungnirSniper on Sunday May 17 2015, @03:10AM
You sound like someone who skins dogs alive or uses blowtorches on them because it makes the meat "better tasting." Sadly this still happens in east Asia.
There is an ethical requirement to minimize the suffering of other creatures, even if they are going to end up on our plates.
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by albert on Sunday May 17 2015, @04:01AM
I see you don't appreciate cultural diversity. There is no such ethical requirement except in your own mind, and certainly not in East Asia.
Here is where your "ethical requirement" comes from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_welfare_in_Nazi_Germany [wikipedia.org]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler_and_vegetarianism [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 17 2015, @04:17AM
Jesus Christ, Hitler was right AGAIN
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 17 2015, @05:17PM
Hitler liked puppies. Therefore, puppies are bad!
I see you don't appreciate cultural diversity.
Morality doesn't end at the border. Contrary to popular belief, it's perfectly possible to believe that those who intentionally inflict needless suffering on living beings are immoral no matter where they live. If a culture promotes that, then the culture is backwards.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 17 2015, @05:44PM
Not sure if ad hominem or red herring, but obvious sophistry. "Hitler liked it/did x" does not make x a bad thing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 18 2015, @05:12PM
ethical requirement
What does that mean and how far do you go? How much suffering is alright to inflict? Is it ethical to kill and eat animals just because they taste better than vegetables?
(Score: 1) by ThG on Sunday May 17 2015, @08:30AM
They are living creatures just like you and me. People like you should be put in those cages, not those animals.
People like you are the reason why this planet is dying. Go fuck yourself.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Dunbal on Sunday May 17 2015, @02:05AM
You feed it to the pigs, of course.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 17 2015, @02:54AM
Terrible idea....... This is how you got 2 rounds on mad cow disease in the US. The feed the infected beef to pigs and the pig remains, after processing to cattle, little did they know at that time that the mad cow virus would survive and infect the cattle feed pig parts.
(Score: 2) by Dunbal on Sunday May 17 2015, @10:41AM
The poultry was culled because of fear of influenza - a respiratory virus that affects poultry, not a prion disease.
Do you suggest not feeding any animal products at all to pigs and raising vegetarian pigs?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by zeigerpuppy on Sunday May 17 2015, @03:38AM
You would hope that such a massive die off of animals would prompt some reappraisal of how these animals are kept.
Ultra high density farming is a powder keg for disease, with resulting overuse of antibiotics and developement of more dangerous bacterial pathogens.
Even if you don't care about animal welfare, the consequences for human health are significant. These antibiotics are in the meat and eggs of the chickens and get consumed, resulting in selection for antibiotic resistant organisms in humans.
Consumers can help the process by choosing more sustainably sourced animal products but government has a role in limiting these practices.
It may actually work out as a net saving too, spending money on mitigation is a good example of privatising profit but the public paying for the environmental consequences of mismanagement.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 18 2015, @05:06PM
These antibiotics are in the meat and eggs of the chickens and get consumed, resulting in selection for antibiotic resistant organisms in humans.
Do you have any references for this? I've never heard of a study that has directly shown this.
(Score: 3, Funny) by rts008 on Sunday May 17 2015, @11:24AM
This is a fowl development!
(Score: 5, Informative) by choose another one on Sunday May 17 2015, @11:31AM
Google foot and mouth (uk) and look for images - good example of how it was done here. Been there done that got the t-shirt.
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=uk+foot+and+mouth&tbm=isch [google.co.uk]
The UK messed around for several weeks then got it right:
1. Use the army, at this scale they are the best at logistics
2. Burn or bury - large mass burials, big big barbecues
It wasn't easy, but it worked.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 17 2015, @05:43PM
assume we (life on earth) are an experiment of some alien overlord.
if one of our ancestors, still in water or even barely on land would have become sick / infected and the alien overlord would have culled us all and started from scratch then we would have never made it this far (reading this for example).
my point is that i doubt that x-gazillion individual tukey-chicken were tested for this infection.
it might just be that a few have (developed) a natural immunity to this infection and could pass this trait on to their off-spring which i assume would be good for farmers?
(Score: 2) by zugedneb on Sunday May 17 2015, @10:16PM
by putting chicken in hole, pour some gasoline and try to burn them to ash :D
old saying: "a troll is a window into the soul of humanity" + also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ajax
(Score: 2, Interesting) by aXis on Monday May 18 2015, @01:49AM
Cant they send them to the plant that uses turkey waste to produce petroleum hydrocarbons?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_depolymerization [wikipedia.org]