# Can Chickens get Hanta Virus?



## MiniGoatsRule (Nov 23, 2019)

Simple question: Can chickens get hanta virus?
When our mousetraps catch a mouse, we like to feed them to our chickens. They always eat mice anyways, our cats don't eat anything dead, they stink everything up if we do anything else... So are our chickens at disease risk when eating mice and we need to find an alternate?
Another question: Am I spelling hanta virus right?


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## farmerjan (Nov 23, 2019)

I have found nothing that relates the Hantavirus to any other species being affected than humans.  Only one reference to ways to contain mice listing cats as a predator.  However, I would not feed the caught dead mice to the chickens.  They would go in a plastic bag and go to the landfill,  or get buried in a compost pile.  I don't like to encourage any type of cannabalism  in my chickens.  Yes, I have seen them eat baby mice if a nest was uncovered and they could get to it.  But I really prefer to not encourage it.  I will take a sticky trap with a mouse on it out to my cats and there are 2 that will come running and pull the mouse off the sticky trap and take care of it.  If it is dead, I will dispose of it in the trash/dumpster etc.  But that is just me.

  I certainly don't want to think about eating any chickens that I am willingly feeding dead mice to.   I find no references to it living through a host like a chicken,  and it supposedly doesn't last for more than a few hours in ultraviolet sunlight.  I know chickens will eat most anything, they really are "garbage heaps" as far as what they will eat.  But I prefer to limit what I willingly feed them.


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## MiniGoatsRule (Nov 27, 2019)

farmerjan said:


> I have found nothing that relates the Hantavirus to any other species being affected than humans.  Only one reference to ways to contain mice listing cats as a predator.  However, I would not feed the caught dead mice to the chickens.  They would go in a plastic bag and go to the landfill,  or get buried in a compost pile.  I don't like to encourage any type of cannabalism  in my chickens.  Yes, I have seen them eat baby mice if a nest was uncovered and they could get to it.  But I really prefer to not encourage it.  I will take a sticky trap with a mouse on it out to my cats and there are 2 that will come running and pull the mouse off the sticky trap and take care of it.  If it is dead, I will dispose of it in the trash/dumpster etc.  But that is just me.
> 
> I certainly don't want to think about eating any chickens that I am willingly feeding dead mice to.   I find no references to it living through a host like a chicken,  and it supposedly doesn't last for more than a few hours in ultraviolet sunlight.  I know chickens will eat most anything, they really are "garbage heaps" as far as what they will eat.  But I prefer to limit what I willingly feed them.


I guess in that case... Well, could I put them in our manure pile or do they not do good as fertilizer? I don't know if that counts as compost like you mentioned


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## Duckfarmerpa1 (Nov 27, 2019)

I agree, don’t want to encourage cannibalizism because they might turn to each other.  Scraps from your table. Scrabble eggs if someone is ill,  but not creatures others than what they find in the dirt.


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## farmerjan (Nov 27, 2019)

I think putting them in the manure pile would be fine.  They will "compost" in it I would think.  Can't seem to find anything relating to how long the virus lives once the host (mouse) is dead.


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