Reborn in the 1980s: I made my fortune hunting wild game in Changbai Mountain

Li Guangkun asked the question casually, seemingly out of curiosity, and everyone in front of him, including Little Eagle Liu, fell silent.

A few seconds later, Yue Feng looked at Xiao Ying Liu and asked in a deep voice, "Grandpa, did this eagle that has a problem have any special experiences during training, release, or feeding?"

Little Eagle Liu frowned slightly as if recalling something, then shook his head a few seconds later: "I don't remember anything special! After you reminded me last time, Lao Li, Mingkai, and I have been paying more attention to the eagles' food."

We've stopped feeding pigeons and other high-risk live prey; the eagles now eat rabbits, mice, and some live poultry raised at our own breeding farm!

When I came last time, Yue Feng did emphasize the issue of the young eagles' diet. Pigeons are prone to carrying a lot of pathogens, so Yue Feng stopped feeding them. After the diet is standardized, the source of Newcastle disease should be basically eliminated.

This direction should be fine. Newcastle disease is highly contagious, and if the food is contaminated, the other eagles won't survive either.

Yue Feng scratched his head, thought for a few seconds, and then asked, "Did you personally conduct the training for Eagle before he fell ill, or was it done by someone else?"

"Was it Mingkai or Xiaodong in charge? I can't quite remember, but there are training records that can be checked and verified!" Xiaoying Liu said.

Upon hearing that it wasn't Grandpa Liu who conducted the training, Yue Feng nodded and said, "Find the records, let me take a look!"

Soon, the training records were found. Little Eagle Liu followed the timeline and compared it with the raptor's daily records, immediately identifying who was in charge a few days before the incident.

For the three days leading up to the accident, Xiao Dong was in charge of the daily flight training at the launch site.

Yue Feng carefully reviewed the training records again, and everything seemed normal.

"Is Xiao Dong not at the club? We need to ask him about this in person, to see if there's anything he missed!" Yue Feng asked.

"Xiao Dong will probably be here around noon. Jianjun sent him to set up the tents for the exhibition! We'll ask him about it then!" said Grandpa Liu.

Yue Feng nodded: "Okay! We'll ask around later!"
Unlike other pathogens, Newcastle disease is not easy to carry or remain dormant. It has a very rapid onset of illness, giving the infected person almost no chance to survive!

If it was just an accidental infection, then we won't dwell on it; the loss of one fledgling eagle is acceptable!

However, if it's not a coincidence, but rather someone deliberately causing trouble, then the nature of the situation is completely different!

Upon hearing Yue Feng's words, Jin Long's brows immediately furrowed.

"Xiaofeng, are you saying that we can't rule out the possibility that someone is deliberately sabotaging us? Trying to wipe out all the young talents in our club?"

Yue Feng glanced at Jin Long: "Don't be so nervous. It's just a possibility, it doesn't mean it's really true! Let's go back to the tea room to rest first. When Xiao Dong comes back, I'll ask him, and then we'll have a better idea!"

"Damn it, no one would dare to mess with us, would they?" Jinlong's face was stern, and his tone turned cold.

Yue Feng comforted him, "It's hard to say, but you don't need to be so nervous. As long as we do a good job in daily management, we don't need to be afraid!"
If we manage daily isolation and disinfection procedures and food safety well, then other things are unlikely to affect us!

"Damn it, don't let me find out that someone's behind this, otherwise, even if I agree, Brother Jun won't!"

"Go back first, don't get worked up. Maybe I'm overthinking it!" Yue Feng comforted him and led the way back.

Because of the sick eagle, the originally harmonious atmosphere of communication immediately became a little tense.

Li Guangkun was aware of the seriousness of the matter, but he didn't think there was anything wrong with the crowd's reaction.

Back in the tea room, everyone drank tea and chatted about the club's raptors, and time flew by.

Around 11 a.m., a Jiefang brand truck followed a car to the club's premises.

Xiao Dong and Ming Kai got out of the car and directed the delivery workers to start unloading the goods.

"Xiao Dong, let Ming Kai keep an eye on the unloading work. You come over here first!" Jin Long shouted as he saw the two brothers return through the window.

Upon hearing Jinlong call him, Xiao Dong immediately put down his work and went inside.

Upon entering the room, I saw Yue Feng there, and an unfamiliar middle-aged man sitting in the seat.

"Brother Feng, when did you arrive? You didn't even tell me beforehand, I would have come to pick you up! And who is this?" Xiao Dong greeted Yue Feng very politely.

"This is my friend, Li Guangkun. You can just call him Brother Li! He's from Yingtun, a master eagle trainer!" Yue Feng gave a brief introduction.

"Hello, Brother Li, my name is Xiao Dong. I work at the club with Brother Jin Shaojun and Brother Feng. Please feel free to ask me anything!" Xiao Dong shook hands and exchanged pleasantries with Li Guangkun in a very polite manner.

"We can talk about other things later. I want to ask you about something from earlier," Yue Feng interrupted the small talk and got straight to the point.

"Hmm? What's up, Feng-ge? Just ask."

“Do you remember when one of our eaglets died of illness a month and a half ago?”

Xiao Dong answered without hesitation, "I remember, I named that male falcon Dot! It performed very well in training, and I liked it very much!"

I don't know how, but I suddenly got sick and died. I was heartbroken for many days afterward!

The fact that Xiao Dong named his pet eagle shows that he has put a lot of effort into it and truly loves it; there's no faking that.

Yue Feng nodded and asked, "I saw in the training records that you were in charge of the daily circling and flying training for the three days before the eagle had the problem."

Has anything unusual happened in the last few days?

"Special circumstances? What counts as special circumstances?" Xiao Dong scratched his head and looked into Yue Feng's eyes as he asked.

"For example, an eagle might fly far away from its normal range of flight and then come back."

Or, during training, they might catch small birds or pigeons that occasionally fly by in the sky.

Or perhaps other non-resident personnel came to the base during training and had close contact with the eagle?

Yue Feng gave several examples that he could think of.

After listening, Xiao Dong fell into a brief moment of thought. A few seconds later, he nodded and said, "Brother Feng, now that you've reminded me, I do remember something!"

"Say!"

Xiao Dong said calmly, "When I was training Dian Dian to fly, a black magpie flew into our training ground from outside and was kicked down by Dian Dian!"
You emphasized the issue of feeding falcons during your last meeting, and that it is not allowed to feed them any meat of unknown origin.

So I quickly went over and replaced the black magpie!
Could it be that something is wrong with that black magpie that caused Dian Dian to get sick? "Black magpie?" Upon hearing this answer, Yue Feng's brows furrowed instantly.

Black magpies may look beautiful, but they are omnivorous birds. They eat seeds and grains, insects and small animals, and even dead cats and rotten dogs in garbage dumps.

If we consider the risks, pigeons are a high-risk species, but if black magpies and pigeons are used to feed eagles in the long term, the risks are almost the same.

It is a reasonable possibility that black magpies carry pathogenic strains.

However, after thinking about it carefully, Yue Feng still felt that something was not quite right.

When Yue Feng used that scruffy bird to challenge the black magpie in the spring, it took him a lot of effort to find an opportunity.

In Beijing, although black magpies exist, their numbers are not large.

The area around the kiln pit is quite far from the city's residential area. Since Yue Feng first came here, he has never seen a black magpie in the vicinity or along the way.

What a coincidence! There happened to be a black magpie nearby, and it happened to be carrying the deadly Newcastle disease virus strain that hadn't been killed. It happened to fly into the training ground and be shot down and captured by a falcon.

Although black magpies have slightly stronger resistance to viruses than other birds, they are still susceptible to the terrifying toxicity of Newcastle disease. Once infected, they do not survive longer than eagles, and most die within two or three days.

Low probability within low probability, after several accumulations, if it occurs naturally, the probability is already lower than winning five million in a two-dollar lottery.

"Xiao Dong, have you checked the black magpie that was kicked down by the eagle? Are there any abrasions or bruises on the wingtips, the ends of the tail feathers, and around the magpie's nose and beak?" Yue Feng continued to ask.

Xiao Dong slapped his forehead: "Yes! Several sharp tips of the black magpie's tail feathers were broken off! I remember it very clearly!"

After raising eagles, I was influenced by Uncle Liu and Uncle Li a lot, and I developed a bit of OCD. I am particularly sensitive to the integrity of the eagle's feathers, and I feel uncomfortable if even a single point of wear is damaged!
I was a little confused at the time; wild black magpies shouldn't have tails like that! But I didn't think much of it then, and just buried the black magpie according to the management procedures.

Where was it buried?

"It was right outside the training ground, near the toilets! They just dug a small, shallow hole, buried it, and then left it there! You can't feed this thing to eagles, and the meat doesn't taste good, so I didn't keep it!"

"Let's go, let's dig it out and take a look!" Upon hearing this, Yue Feng immediately stood up from his seat.

Seeing Yue Feng's serious demeanor, Xiao Dong knew something was amiss. Without further ado, he got up, went out, grabbed a shovel from the tool shed, and led Yue Feng to dig up the dead magpie.

The group followed Xiao Dong down the training field and arrived at the eastern corner. Xiao Dong quickly identified the shallow pit he had dug and then picked up a shovel and started turning it over.

The pit wasn't deep; the body was dug out with just a few shovels.

A strong stench wafted from the soil, and everyone instinctively held their breath and frowned.

Yue Feng did not retreat. He broke off two grass stalks from the side, held them in his hands, squatted down, and began to pry open the corpse that had rotted down to just bones and feathers.

After more than a month of decomposition, the black magpie's flesh had completely rotted away, but the bones remained. The feathers, being composed of keratin, had a relatively low degree of decomposition, and their original appearance could still be discerned.

Yue Feng carefully poked at the remains in the soil with a straw, then picked out the primary feathers and the thick tail feathers separately.

After careful examination, Yue Feng quickly saw the broken tail tip that Xiao Dong had mentioned.

The tip of the feather was broken off about one to two centimeters from the edge of its normal size, completely ruling out the possibility of natural wear and tear in the wild.

This level of tail feather wear is most likely caused by being kept in a cage, and there must have been human intervention to cause it.

After personally examining the details, Yue Feng's expression turned grim. This thing was definitely placed here on purpose by someone.

"Xiao Dong, dig the hole deeper, sprinkle lime on it, and bury it deep!"
Grandpa Liu, do you still have disinfectant here in the warehouse? Could you please mix some disinfectant and give everyone a full-body disinfection?
"Everyone, don't move around, just stay where you are!" Yue Feng methodically instructed everyone to get to work.

Xiao Dong and Grandpa Liu went to work, leaving only Jinlong, Li Guangkun, and Yue Feng standing still.

Jinlong had seen everything from beginning to end and already knew what was going on.

"Xiaofeng, did someone deliberately throw this black magpie into our training ground? Was their purpose to infect our eagles with the virus?"

As a result, Dian Dian contracted the virus and died, but because our management system is quite scientific, we carried out disinfection and isolation in a timely manner, preventing the spread of the germs! Jin Long asked Yue Feng with a cold expression.

Yue Feng nodded: "The black magpie's tail must have been damaged in a cage or something similar!"
This black magpie either escaped its cage and accidentally brought bacteria with it, or it was deliberately chosen as a carrier for poisoning!

"What a coincidence! The escape cage carried poison and just happened to fly into our training ground?" Jinlong didn't believe this explanation at all.

In fact, Yue Feng didn't believe it either; he couldn't even convince himself that the probability was too low.

"The incident has already happened, and more than a month has passed. It's impossible to collect evidence now that we want to investigate!"
"We'll keep this to ourselves. We'll tell Jianjun later, but let's not tell anyone else for now!" Yue Feng said in a low voice.

"Damn it! There really are some fools who dare to mess with us!!"

Jinlong, seething with anger, coughed up a mouthful of phlegm and spat it heavily into the pit next to the magpie's corpse.

"This has its downsides, but also its advantages; it's served as a reminder!" Yue Feng comforted him.

"There are benefits? What benefits?"
"One of the eagles is dead. Xiao Dong, Ming Kai, Uncle Liu, and Uncle Li raised it from a fledgling with all their hard work!" Jin Long asked Yue Feng, his tone somewhat agitated.

Yue Feng looked into Jinlong's eyes and said very calmly, "If we don't realize that someone is sabotaging this, what do you think will happen if someone deliberately brings toxins and germs to the exhibition on the day of the event?"

"This……"

As Jinlong followed Yue Feng's line of thought, a layer of white sweat instantly broke out on his back.

On the day of the exhibition, there will definitely be a large and diverse crowd, and people will likely have close and intimate contact with the eagles.

If someone really uses this method to cause trouble, and the organizers are completely unprepared...

Even the black eagle brought by Yue Feng, as well as the top-tier eagle, the Azure Dragon, and the wild-caught golden eagle and tiger eagle.

No matter what physique or physical condition one has, none of them can withstand the lethality of Newcastle disease.

The worst-case scenario would be that all the eagles would fall prey to their trap within just a few days and be wiped out! (End of Chapter)