Farmer Joel Salatin on bird flu immunity:
"The thing that gets me about avian influenza is the response to it. In any flock that gets avian influenza, there are always survivorsâmany times, more survivors than not.
Now, you would think that if the people in charge were actually thinking, they would say, "Huh, weâve got a flock here of chickens. Some got it, some didnât. Why donât we save the ones that didnât?
Weâll take their genetics, breed them, and maybe weâll actually breed in more robust immune systems. Wow, fancy that! Wouldnât that be cool?"
"No. If you have 10,000 birds in a flock and one birdâs got avian influenza, immediately, by government decree, all of them must be exterminated."
All of themâsurvivors, non-survivorsâeverything.
Back many years ago, when a pathogenic influenza hit Indochinaâremember when it came through Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and all that?âthe UK did some experiments. They found that if a chicken eats two fresh blades of grass a dayâtwo blades of fresh grass a dayâshe doesnât get avian influenza."