Modern Turkey Industry
The modern turkey industry has developed a hybrid white turkey that is larger and faster growing than purebred or wild turkeys. The modern hybrid turkeys are so large they can no longer naturally breed efficiently. All modern turkeys are artificial insemination...
The modern turkey industry has developed a hybrid white turkey that is larger and faster growing than purebred or wild turkeys. The modern hybrid turkeys are so large they can no longer naturally breed efficiently. All modern turkeys are artificial insemination...
In the Turkey Breeding Factory
By Frank Observer A friend heard an advertisement on the local radio about the Butterball Turkey Company needing workers in artificial insemination, called "AI" for short. So I went to the personnel office across the street from the turkey killing plant in this small midwestern town. Latinos, Asians and poor whites filled the waiting room. Everybody wore rubber boots and big, puffy white hairnets--both men and women.
"Bob," the AI boss, explained that the modern turkey business is about the "most high-technical" of all the animal operations. "The turkey is a creation of modern science and industry," he said. "It's been out of the wild only about 1OO years, the last animal to be domesticated. Because of that wildness, it tends to go 'broody,' which means it lays a few eggs once a year and quits. We have to trick it into laying all the time."
Bob told me that the company's birds are much bigger and more clumsy than the original turkey--so much so that they can't breed by themselves anymore. So the company has to use AI to produce the fertile eggs that hatch the chicks that then go into "grow-out" houses and grow up to be slaughtered and processed....
By Frank Observer A friend heard an advertisement on the local radio about the Butterball Turkey Company needing workers in artificial insemination, called "AI" for short. So I went to the personnel office across the street from the turkey killing plant in this small midwestern town. Latinos, Asians and poor whites filled the waiting room. Everybody wore rubber boots and big, puffy white hairnets--both men and women.
"Bob," the AI boss, explained that the modern turkey business is about the "most high-technical" of all the animal operations. "The turkey is a creation of modern science and industry," he said. "It's been out of the wild only about 1OO years, the last animal to be domesticated. Because of that wildness, it tends to go 'broody,' which means it lays a few eggs once a year and quits. We have to trick it into laying all the time."
Bob told me that the company's birds are much bigger and more clumsy than the original turkey--so much so that they can't breed by themselves anymore. So the company has to use AI to produce the fertile eggs that hatch the chicks that then go into "grow-out" houses and grow up to be slaughtered and processed....
Ali, A., H. Yassine, O. A. Olusegun, M. Ibrahim, Y. M. Saif, and C. W. Lee. Replication of swine and human influenza viruses in juvenile and layer turkey hens. Vet. Microbiol. 163:71?78. 2013
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Our results also indicate a potential risk of venereal transmission of influenza viruses in turkeys.
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Our results also indicate a potential risk of venereal transmission of influenza viruses in turkeys.
And it gets worse:
Avian Diseases 59(1):171-174. 2015
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1637/10889-062314-CaseRep
Mature Turkey Breeder Hens Exposed to Pandemic Influenza H1N1: Resultant Effects on Morbidity, Mortality, and Fecundity
Robert EvansAD, Yugendar BommineniB, Jonathan FalkC, Adam BlackwayA, Brent YoungA, and Connie IsenhartA
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During the artificial insemination process, turkey breeder hens may become infected with influenza virus acquired from humans.
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1637/10889-062314-CaseRep
Mature Turkey Breeder Hens Exposed to Pandemic Influenza H1N1: Resultant Effects on Morbidity, Mortality, and Fecundity
Robert EvansAD, Yugendar BommineniB, Jonathan FalkC, Adam BlackwayA, Brent YoungA, and Connie IsenhartA
...
During the artificial insemination process, turkey breeder hens may become infected with influenza virus acquired from humans.
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