March 16, 2004

No New Bird Flu Cases Detected In Canada
 
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency announced that no additional cases of bird flu have been detected in British Columbia following the outbreak of the disease in two farms.
 
"We have been testing all barns in a five-kilometer radius around the first two farms, and so far all testing has come back as negative," said Alain Charette, media relations officer for CFIA. "We are now retesting all the animals put down to confirm the negative finding."
 
Testing included the sampling of 60 random birds from each farm in the control zone, Charette said.
 
A second British Columbia farm was confirmed to have H7 avian influenza. The farm is located three kilometers from the first farm to be found with the virus in the Abbotsford area of British Columbia on the U.S. border.
 
The first farm's 16,000 birds were destroyed Feb. 20, and CFIA subsequently set up a five-kilometer surveillance area.
 
Charette said the original farm consisted of two barns, and low pathogenic avian influenza was discovered in one of them. Tests were completed on the birds from both barns, at which time birds from the second barn were discovered to have high-pathogenic avian influenza.
 
"All the birds discovered on the first two farms have now been put down," he said. "We are maintaining very strict controls in the high risk zone around the first two farms, meaning road controls for the people who come in and out of the zones as well as the movement of animals and products."
 
Charette said there are no signs of bird flu having spread to other farms. However, he cautioned that CFIA will continue to look for the disease over the next couple of weeks.
 
No word was available on how the disease spread to the original farm.
 
The threat of the disease remains a constant threat, Charette said, explaining that avian influenza is common among water fowl around the globe.
 
"Their droppings can carry the disease, which means there are circumstances in which it can move into barns, not just here, but anywhere," Charette said. "The disease can spread as simply as water fowl flying over the barnyard, their droppings hitting a walkway or entrance to the barns, and an individual unwillingly stepping in it and bringing it in the barn."
 
The European Union last week banned the import of all Canadian live poultry, poultry meat and products, eggs and pet birds until April 6. The ban will be reviewed on March 22.
 
According to the CFIA, Japan, Singapore, China, Malaysia, Peru, Brazil and South Korea have also suspended live poultry and poultry products from Canada while Romania, Mexico, Russia, Barbados, Philippines, Poland and Hong Kong have limited their ban to poultry and poultry products from British Columbia.