00:00AI is carried by rats and mice and also by pigeons and water birds, so we've 100% of
00:09the time we've got implementation of risk mitigation in place to avoid these sort of
00:15situations.
00:16What sort of things do you do then?
00:17Well, we've got our waters constantly chlorinated, we've fenced off any areas where we've got
00:24trees around the farm so that the birds can't get up under the trees and into any manure
00:28that may come out of roosting birds.
00:31We don't have any standing water on the place, we get rid of any pigeons or pigeons trying
00:35to nest around the farm and keep the general public out of the place even though they love
00:40to come and visit and see our farm, they do give us a problem.
00:44Yeah, I bet.
00:45Are you worried?
00:47Not particularly.
00:50The farms that have been affected are very, very high density, like 10, 12, 14 birds per
00:55square metre, which is 100, 140,000 birds a hectare sort of thing, compared to our 200
01:03birds a hectare, so we don't get half the problems that the big shed operators get.
01:09What sort of contact advice have you had from the likes of, say, Agriculture Victoria?
01:16Absolutely nothing, except the fact that there's an outbreak in the Meredith Lethbridge corridor.
01:23No contact at all to give you any advice?
01:26No contact at all.
01:27They haven't advised us whether the infections entered the properties from migratory birds
01:33or water birds or pigeons or rats, we've got no idea where it started from, so we don't
01:39know what sort of things we need to do to take extra precautions.
01:42Yeah, what would you like to hear from them?
01:45We'd like to hear the source, so if we know the source is rodents, well we can put extra
01:49bait stations out around in our paddocks and that sort of a thing, and have a bit more
01:54of a look at night if there's any rodent activity out in the paddocks.
02:00So anything would be good, it's the largest outbreak of AI in the country's history, so
02:05you'd think that the growers would actually be hearing a lot more first-hand from Agriculture
02:09Victoria.
02:10You're clearly a pro at this, Boyd, but as you'll know, there are lots of backyard chicken
02:16keepers as well that just have five or six in their backyard.
02:20What would be your advice for them?
02:23If you're in the area that's affected, if you're within 10 or 15 k's of the notified
02:27area, I'd be keeping the birds locked up, in that case, if you're going to have them
02:32locked up, you're going to need to have some extra carbon on the floor, either some sawdust
02:35or some rice hulls, that sort of thing to soak up the manure.
02:39Get extra baits out for clearing up any rodent issues, if you're not sure which baits to
02:44get, just go down to your local stock feeds and they'll certainly advise you most of the
02:47rat baits out there are bird resistant, you don't have any risk of killing off your birds
02:52if you're baiting for rats and mice.
02:55Clear out anything that's attractive to water birds and definitely clear out any nesting
02:58pigeons.
02:59Yeah, and is this something that you think that the authorities should be telling small
03:06holder chicken farmers?
03:09Absolutely, small holder chicken farmers or back yarders, it'd be good if they could give
03:14us a clear indication of which direction that the infections have come from.
03:19And Boyd, I know this isn't the same strain as bird flu has been seen in other parts of
03:24the world and that has been much more serious.
03:26The measures that were put into place, for example, in the UK were very stringent, they
03:31were very strict rules.
03:32Have you followed what's gone on there?
03:35No, I haven't.
03:36There's dozens and dozens of different strains.
03:38I see there's some very big outbreaks in America, they're probably more of a concern because
03:43those ones over there actually can infect humans as well.
03:50So that's more of a problem, but the high density farming is the real problem.
03:55Here we're not seeing any problems in the pasture based businesses or the low density
04:00end of the market.
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