Livestock News

Beef News

Six new articles have been posted in this week’s issue number 1294 of the Ohio BEEF Cattle letter: http://u.osu.edu/beef/

Poison hemlock needs to be managed before it makes seed . . . this week Christine Gelley talks about killing it now!

Articles this week include:

  • Kill Poison Hemlock Now
  • Forage Harvest Management to Speed Drying and Store High-Quality Forage
  • Crabgrass for Summer Grazing…Have you lost your mind???
  • 10 Tips for Managing High Feed Prices
  • Will China meet its growing beef demand by raising it themselves?
  • Slow Planting Progress Contributing to Increased Corn Price Expectations

Small Ruminant Animals

Poultry

This information is provided by Tim McDermott, DVM, Extension Educator in Franklin County.

I want to share some updates and provide some information related to some questions I have been getting. In terms of birds affected per the USDA poultry confirmation website, we are at nearly 38 million.  For comparison’s sake, the 2014-2015 outbreak was 50 million birds affected.

  • Regarding keeping up bird feeders: My recommendation is to minimize or eliminate places where birds gather in a group during this outbreak. If you keep poultry, I highly recommend you do not put up bird feeders.  While songbirds have not been discovered as affected when I went through the list of wild birds on the USDA APHIS website, feeding is still considered a biosecurity risk.  Birds defecate where they eat and working with the feeders can spread the virus to other places when tracked on shoes.  Songbirds can also attract raptors as predators and unfortunately, raptors seem to be among the most negatively affected family of birds, similar to poultry.
  • Regarding putting up hummingbird feeders:  I have not seen any reports of hummingbirds being affected by HPAI.  Hummingbird feeders also do not attract the variety of other birds that regular feeders do.  I would still practice good biosecurity when feeding hummingbirds while this epidemic is in place. I would not feed hummingbirds if I kept poultry.

In terms of where we are in migration, May birding in Ohio is noted for being some of the best in the world. Last week was the Biggest Week in American Birding which attracted thousands to the western Lake Erie basin who are now heading home.  Hopefully not take the virus back with them. This generally marks the peak, but not the end, of migration.

We need to keep spreading the word and all doing our parts on Biosecurity.  I did another video with OPA and ODA that I would ask you all to share with your clients, Facebook pals, and 4H clubs.  It is an update on questions we have received, signs of HPAI, and who to call.

An Update on HPAI

Poultry Biosecurity webinar on Tuesday, May 31st @ 6:30. The flyer is hereCLICK HERE for registration.  This is likely one of the last Biosecurity classes I will be teaching this season so feel free to share out with any clients that may need to attend.  If they cannot attend, I have a recorded webinar found HERE on YouTube.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *