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OEATH BY STRESS
-
Chicken
on the ground (left) died of
stress from crowded conditions and
not of any disease.
Vaccine is being administered ocu–
larly to chick too small to receive in–
jection (above).
USDA
workers struggle to capture
birds in backyard Aock for vaccination
(right) .
When the outbreak of Exotic New–
castle's disease first started in southern
California in November 1971, govern–
ment officials thought it would soon be
brought under control. Four million
chickens were slaughtered ("depopu–
lated") in the first ha lf of 1972 in an
attempt to prevent the spread of the
highly contagious disease, which is fa–
tal to poultry but harmless to humans.
But in September of the same year,
the
USDA
had to order another
"depopulation," this time of a huge
commercial Aock at Egg City, near
Moorpark, California. This time, 3..4
million chickens were destroyed.
The only hope of eradicating the dis–
ease was by an all-out, three-pronged
attack. lt consisted of extermination of
all infected Aocks, vaccination of all
unexposed Aocks (30 million birds) ,
and a rigid, 45,000-square-mile quar–
antine of the infected orea.
But even the desperation methods
employed in the U. S. were not as ef–
fective as originally hoped. The huge
flock destroyed at Egg City had been
vaccinated. Yet special susceptible
"sentinel" birds planted in the Aock
come down with the disease, so the
USDA
had to arder the destruction of
the entire Aock.
Don
lorlon
-
Ploin Trutlt Pilotos
PLAIN TRUTH Morch 1973