After confirming the presence of highly pathogenic avian flu in a flock of chickens, nearly 48,000 birds were killed at a north Alabama farm, state agriculture officials said.

A Marshall County commercial pullet farm — one that raises chicks from hatching until they are ready to produce eggs when they are moved to a laying barn — was placed under quarantine after samples were confirmed positive for HPAI, the Alabama Department of Agriculture & Industries announced Friday.

HPAI is highly contagious to birds but considered low risk to humans and the virus is not considered a threat to food safety, the department said.

  • jeffw@lemmy.worldM
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    32
    arrow-down
    6
    ·
    1 year ago

    Friendly reminder that lab grown meat is 10-20 years away from being affordable and then we don’t have to deal with this shit happening every few months

    • just_another_person@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      32
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Vertical farmed lettuce had an outbreak of ecoli three times in the past year. These people care about profits, not safety.

      • jeffw@lemmy.worldM
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        11
        arrow-down
        11
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        And you know where that E. coli comes from, right? It’s when farms put cattle too close to their lettuce (this is shockingly common) and the E. coli goes from the cattle shit and washes down to the irrigation system, which goes to the lettuce. My understanding is this still happens due to how the irrigation/water systems work for hydroponic stuff.

        Not sure if you’re agreeing with me or you were trying to point out a flaw, but it’s still all caused by animal ag being shitty.

        • just_another_person@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          12
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          EColi lives everywhere. It’s in your house. Your bathroom. It’s literally in the root vegetables you eat. That’s why you boil them. It’s impossible to have a truly clean food product is my point.

          • jeffw@lemmy.worldM
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            7
            arrow-down
            4
            ·
            1 year ago

            But the example you cited is due to animals is my point. Which you don’t have in a lab

            • just_another_person@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              5
              arrow-down
              2
              ·
              1 year ago

              Your assumption is that animals contaminate. That is not the the case. It’s a naturally occurring thing that pretty much lives everywhere. Not exclusive to animals vs plants.

        • Wahots@pawb.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          8
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Not for or against this, but also food processing plants, where stuff like lettuce gets rinsed- those rinsing machines can get e.coli in them, contaminating otherwise clean produce. Even shit like dry cereals can get salmonella in them. When it comes to peeled stuff, you are pretty safe. Hard fruits and vegetables can be washed with soap and water if not cooked. But some stuff can’t be washed with soap. That’s where you can run into trouble.

          I wish there was better food and cleaning standards.

    • Machinist3359@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      13
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      Many folks could reduce meat consumption now as well to mitigate the damages.

      Americans have developed a norm of every meal needing meat, when for much of history it was a few times per week.

    • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      Yeah…no. not in this case. For one, chicken is way cheaper and quicker to grow than pork or beef, and especially in this particular case, these birds were raised for egg laying. You aren’t lab growing anything anytime soon that you can go buy for 97 cents a dozen.

    • Nora@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      You can also go vegan right now. Every person that goes vegan saves hundreds of animals a year.

      • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        Not really. They just save the bigger/cuter ones. Thousands of mice, voles, moles, birds, rabbits, etc die from plowing up all the fields and machine gathering crops. Farming plants still kills lots of animals. Just not cows pigs and chickens.

          • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            That’s true of the crops for animal feed, but then one cow will provide over 1,000 meals worth of food, as well as feeding everyone’s pet dogs and cats.

            I’m thinking the difference in death tolls between natural omnivores compared to vegans is closer than you think.

        • Xcf456@lemmy.nz
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Still a net reduction though, a lot of those crops go to feed cows, pigs and chickens so if you remove that step and just eat the crops far fewer animals get killed

          • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            Sure (maybe. Cows raised mainly on pasture grass might not actually cause that), but the point I’m more trying to make is that it’s dumb for a vegan/vegetarian to act like they aren’t killing animals so they can eat. One cows life can provide 1000 meals worth of meat. How many small animals died to get 1000 meals worth of salads, because I’m willing to bet it’s more than just 1.

        • Nora@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          You still farm crops to feed cows and pigs… You actually farm way less just to feed a human. So either way you’re still killing less animals over all. And there are also study’s showing the vast majority of field animals run to the edges of the field when the combines come.

      • deeferg@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Too many nut allergies. Unfortunately some of us won’t be able to go Vegan with the way the ingredient lists on a lot of Vegan options read.

        It would be great.

        • Nora@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          there are tons of options. Im vegan and nut and soy free because my roommate is allergic to nuts and soy among other things.

          We eat all kinds of beans and legumes and other sources of protein.