When a strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza, or HPAI, tore through U.S. poultry farms in early 2025, farmers culled tens of millions of birds, and egg prices soared.
  • 20cello@lemmy.world
    3·
    4 hours ago

    Another level of torture for those poor animals, hopefully won’t lead to bigger problems.

    • altphoto@lemmy.today
      3·
      3 hours ago

      Nah. It’s totally fine 👌. I’m vegan, but now that chicken have 4 extra legs, I can feed my family for the same dollar that used to feed only one! I’m from the future, don’t tell anybody. They’ll definitely not raise the price of octochicken.

    • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
      1·
      3 hours ago

      According to the article,

      “Far-UVC light differs from conventional germicidal UV light because it can inactivate viruses and bacteria without penetrating deeply enough to damage human or animal skin and eyes. Far-UVC light is of interest as an antipathogen tool because it could be used safely in occupied spaces such as hospitals, clinics, classrooms, restaurants and poultry houses.”

      …

      "Xu will focus on the engineering challenges of deploying the technology in poultry houses. Dust can absorb or scatter far-UVC light before it reaches spaces occupied by birds. His team will measure how much ultraviolet radiation reaches those areas.

      Using artificial intelligence-assisted camera tracking, researchers also will monitor whether the light affects chickens’ behavior, circadian rhythms and growth performance.

      Xu is also designing an integrated disinfection system that combines far-UVC air treatment with UVC-enabled positive-pressure ventilation and robotic floor-disinfection modules."

      So yes we’re talking about Texas commercial chicken-production farming which is awful, but the experiment itself (light, ventilation and cleaner floors) doesn’t seem like torture. And at least they’d be monitoring more closely than your average Texas farmer, in case of unforeseen harm.