Bird flu outbreak mostly spares backyard chickens
Christopher Doering, USA TODAY 12:45 p.m. EDT May 15, 2015
... Michael Greger, director of public health and animal agriculture for the Humane Society of the United States, notes that people have been raising poultry in their backyards for thousands of years. He estimated there has been "an unprecedented rise in the number of outbreaks" the past few decades, with more occurring since 2000 than in all of the previous century.
Still, he cautioned backyard bird owners from worrying too much about the virus.
"When there is an outbreak, any birds are susceptible," Greger said. "I don't want all these backyard hobbyists to all of a sudden freak out because they must realize, as we've seen in the Midwest, most of these outbreaks are happening within these networks of these large commercial entities and not so much in these backyard flocks."
