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Eomycota t1_j3xp2su wrote

Unless you are talking about breeder, most farmers buy eggs which are breed specifically for what they want (eggs or meat). Most commercial breed are three breed cross, mother and father different, breed this chicken again to get what you want. They use very specific breed to obtain the result they seek. They would need to do this with the parents for many generations to get a stable breed again. Not that easy to do and they might not have the sae exact traits they want.

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poorbill OP t1_j3xuwg8 wrote

Yes but wouldn't resistance to bird flu be a desirable trait as well? I would think some chickens would survive out of millions infected.

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Eomycota t1_j3xxvgr wrote

It definitly would and they might be doing it, but it is a very long process since it involve multiple breed. They would need to find out how to make children of the children resistant. They never breed the chickens they sell. They mix a+b= c than c+b= d where d is the final breed, but they always restart at c+b, never breed d with d or the result would be different.

I knew a guy which did that with bees for varroas and he lost over 90% of his bees. It took him years to come back, but his hives now deal better agaist the varroa, but he is a crazy one.

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AverageMan282 t1_j3ym7dl wrote

The thing with trying to apply evolution to modern systems is that it requires shitloads of death and failure for a solution to be stumbled upon. Most people and businesses are better off with just managing issues themselves.

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zaphod_pebblebrox t1_j40kjly wrote

See, that term “I would think” rubs contrary to statistical tests conducted at research farms.

The process that you are asking makes no sense to a farm that wants to “grow” a chicken by a few pounds to get the meat.

Identifying infected animals from no infected, segregating them, and then monitoring them needs manpower and equipment that they don’t have. And not interested in purchasing.

And then you have doubts for any asymptomatic infected chickens. This is an industry that feeds humans. No one takes that level of risk. No one.

An analogy is the old Windows xp era habit of wiping the hard drive instead of “finding” and isolating the virus. Companies that relied on data being their service, have back up chickens that get replaced instantly to keep the production line going.

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