Turkeys getting sick is news? The article I read was in a hard copy of Outdoor News which is behind a pay wall online, here. There’s a DNR bulletin, here.
Several of these turkeys were tested for Avian Pox Virus, which is known to circulate in Minnesota wild turkeys, and Lymphoproliferative Disease Virus (LPDV), which was not previously known to be circulating in Minnesota but a disease of concern in the southern United States.
(In the hard copy article, DNR insinuates the problem is farm raised birds and backyard birds. Big Ag is nasty and definitely worst investigating. But back yard birds? Nonsense.)
For the last five, perhaps six years? Maybe a little longer, I’ve been seeing warted hens and toms in our back yard. But just heads, and upper half of necks, rest of body unaffected. It’s a terrible thing. The warts get so big they often block an eye. Many but not all of the warts are open as well. Not leaking, at least when I see them, but open. Often crusty. The sick birds get shunned, violently by the flock. They sometimes recover, and are welcomed back into the flock. Their warts then having either fallen off, they can sometimes scratch them off with their feet or rub them off by rubbing their face/head on the ground. Or they’re scared over, but even the warts that remain, have shrunk some. But the warts always recede to some degree, especially round their eyes. It doesn’t appear to effect their eyes, after they recede and there’s no longer a physical barrier blocking their eyes. One thing to note is the beaks usually aren’t effected and when they are it’s a few small warts on top, near the edge of the skin, or on the bottom of beak, either halfway down, and up towards mouth, or still on the bottom and up near the tip of the beak. The warts on lower half of beak, are grey/brown/black, dried, hard. They give a bone like appearance. Not flesh like. I haven’t seen warts on their feet, ever.
When the birds do get shunned I’ll try to feed them separately. Which is never easy, trying to stand off eight or a dozen birds while one feeds in a corner of the yard, that is if the sick bird doesn’t get spooked first with all the movement and cackling and runs off.
As I said they sometimes recover. I’d guess, half do, half don’t. The recovered birds don’t breed, which is apparently news to the DNR. Not all birds, even healthy ones breed. Often one tom will be the breeder and have two to five who follow him but show no interest in breeding, no struts, no fighting with other toms for the hens, nothing. Some hens don’t breed either. It’s not uncommon for one or two to linger around the yard in the spring, as opposed to going off and not showing up till mid summer with eight to a dozen fuzzy wuzzies in toe. The babies don’t have feathers, but fuzz/fur.
The DNR says these diseases can’t be transmitted to humans. I’m not sick. But I haven’t eaten any of these birds either. Though if it’s news to them that some are sick, should we believe anything they say? I don’t.
If I shot one that turned out to be warted, I wouldn’t eat it. I never did see any warted birds when hunting, but I haven’t turkey hunted in some time. My Dad and his friend go turkey hunting every year and neither’s seen warted birds while out. I don’t intend to turkey hunt any time soon either. Shooting 12ga magnum turkey loads isn’t easy. And given my neuro/vision problems, I have zero interest in rattling my brain with a gun/load combination that makes a 30-06 feel like a 5.56mm NATO by comparison.
So I’ll just go out in the yard a couple times a day and feed the flock in the yard and drive half the yuppie neighbors crazy, while the other half stand around watching like I’m performing some death defying feat. Yes, some of these people think turkeys are a threat.
Turkey’s make far better neighbors than yuppies. And half way through writing this, the flock was hungry, and I went out to feed them. By the way, just pour a bird seed mix, sunflower, cracked corn, peanuts, safflower, millet. You don’t need the expensive stuff without shells and with bits of fruit thrown in. Sweet talk them too, like you would a spooked dog or cat. They respond well to it.
Equip, train, pray and never disarm.
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