Vibrant Immunity

With the announcement of bird flu in West Virginia this week, African Swine Fever in pigs, and invasive Mexican screw worm in cattle, how does Polyface protect its animals from these news-dominating epizootics?  

Are we concerned?  

What is our biosecurity protocol?  

While this blog can't answer all of these issues in depth, I'm going to give you Cliff's Notes on the Polyface animal health strategy.

1.  Nature's default position is wellness.  

In our 65 years, we've had six financially-significant livestock illness outbreaks.  I'm using the term "financially-significant" because anyone who raises thousands, tens of thousands, of animals like we do will have an occasional loss.  What gets your attention is when it becomes financially significant.  Losing one chicken out of a hundred comes with the territory of life--things can die.  But losing 25 out of 100 is a different story.

Every one of these six incidents was my fault.  Inadequate diet, lack of hygiene, improper habitat, stress, wrong genetics--always, always, always my fault.  

In other words, animals don't get sick because they are vaccine or pharmaceutically disadvantaged; they get sick because I made an incorrect management decision.  

Because of this mentality, we don't reach for crutches; we seek true solutions.  This makes us learn from our mistakes instead of blaming inadequate interventions.

2.  Immunological vibrancy starts with genetics.  

While it's certainly not all about genetics, that's a critical element.  If one animal out of a hundred dies, we don't assume we're neglecting something critical for the whole group.  We assume that one animal had a weakness and nature culled it.  Ultimately this protects future generations from weaknesses. This is the function of predators.

Not one industrial factory house exterminated for bird flu has had 100 percent infection.  Even in the worst cases, where 19,900 birds in a house of 20,000 got sick, there have been survivors.  If animal care requires one thing, it requires saving the survivors. But U.S. policy is to kill the survivors; it's insanity.

By not using crutches, we learn quickly which animals can thrive and which ones are weak.  That's why we can have many thousands of animals without vet bills.

3.  Happiness is the greatest wellness catalyst.  

Honoring the pigness of the pig and cowness of the cow is the starting point for a happy, satisfied, fulfilled animal.  

I've mentioned happiness in these blogs before because it is the essence of Polyface.  Our favorite comment from visitors is "the animals look so content."

Visit any industrial factory farm, and you can sense the stress.  

Deprived of fresh air, sunshine, pasture, and appropriate herd and flock sizing, these poor animals never enjoy a good day. Breathing fecal particulate, living in their toilet, and crammed in quarters too confining to exhibit natural behaviors, these animals live a miserable existence.  

While making animals happy costs more, it's worth it for health benefits and eating pleasure.  Yes, you can eat happiness; stress makes adrenals secrete cortisol.

4.  Provenance determines health, just like in humans.  

That means we feed probably three times the minerals that other farmers feed, and they're good natural minerals.  The primary one is seaweed (kelp) from geothermally dried Icelandic beds.

All our feed grains are checked for glyphosate contamination at the mill that mixes and grinds our omnivore rations.  That's more careful than organic certified standards that just rely on checked boxes and grower integrity.  

Herbivores (cows and sheep) receive no grain to compromise proper rumen function.

Provenance is not just about diet; it's also about where the feedstocks come from.

5.  Hygiene.  

Livestock aren't potty-trained, which means we spend a lot of time moving them to fresh areas.  This not only keeps them away from their own poop; it spreads these goodies around to fertilize the soil.  Keeping any animal, whether a dog or cow, in the same place for an extended period of time tends to generate a buildup of pathogens.

In the winter, we use a carbonaceous "diaper" to absorb their manure and keep things clean.  

The Eggmobiles follow cows to enable laying hens to scratch through cow patties and sanitize the field before the cows return.  Nature never works with single species; it uses multi-species in complex relationships to maintain hygiene in the ecosystem.

6.  Geriatric animals are a liability.  

Among living things, only humans live a long time after reproductive capabilities stop.  In nature, once reproductive capacity is over, the animal doesn't survive long.

Old animals are prone to sickness, which is why at Polyface, we cull aggressively as animals age.  

Laying hens enjoy two good years of production and then go into the stew pot.  Cows that begin to break down in their udder, fail to breed, or have worn teeth, get harvested into ground beef.

In nature, predators handle these waning animals.  On a domestic farm, the farmer makes those decisions.  Eating livestock is one of the protections against animal diseases.  

Farms that keep animals into old age, often citing animal welfare desires, actually become a liability to the livestock world.

7.  Pharmaceutical alternatives exist.  

If we have an issue that becomes financially significant, we know of numerous non-pharmaceutical regimens that work.  

Just like in humans, the ecological livestock community has everything from homeopathic remedies to biological supplements.

The industry calls these "snake oil," but we've found some extremely effective antidotes to common problems like respiratory, foot (hoof), or edema issues.  

Focusing attention on prevention first, and then utilizing these alternative drenches, salves, or herbals in the most extreme cases, almost always yields positive results.

The point of all this is that, at Polyface, we do everything possible to never have to doctor animals. 

By adhering to these protocols, all our attention goes into prevention rather than treatment.  

We believe that makes a dining experience that lets us, the eaters, vicariously enjoy the benefits of a vibrant immune system.  We are what we eat, the saying goes.  If what we eat has a robust immune system, it will pass that vibrancy on to us.  

Thank you for caring enough about your immune system that you are willing to invest in animals that come to your plate with vibrant immunological function.  

Happy dining.