Is it even nutritious for cows or pigs? Kinda surprised they'd do that, I know factory farming often does super cruel stuff but that just sounds both cruel and unprofitable

Feeding chicken coop litter (straw and chicken shit) to cows is banned in most developed countries but apparently practiced in the US, this could be how H5 bird flu first crossed to cows. The much more deadly avian strain of H5 flu is spread by the fecal-oral vector while the less deadly bovine H5 strain is spread by the respiratory-mucus vector. If a cow gets coinfected with both strains, it’s possible for the two strains to hybridize and become more dangerous. Seems crazy that this is legal! Source: beowulf888.

Seems like it’s banned in California for lactating dairy cows, only a nationwide ban for all cows resolves this market Yes.

It’s also used as a fertilizer for organic vegetables!

Adding pigs to this market, seems like that could be even more important since a virus in pigs would have an easier time crossing to humans. Either a ban for pigs or for cows resolves this market Yes.

The Telegraph: Ground-up chicken waste fed to cattle may be behind bird flu outbreak in US cows