March 23, 2009
Canada lifts quarantine on British Columbia poultry farms
A bird flu-related quarantine has been lifted on 22 poultry farms in south-western British Columbia, Fraser Valley, after three weeks of surveillance and testing by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
Bird flu outbreaks of a low-pathogenicity virus were traced to two poultry farms in January and February, and others nearby were also quarantined farms.
About 60,000 turkeys on the first farm were euthanized and 12,000 breeder birds on the second farm were destroyed.
The birds were composted on the farms at high temperatures to ensure any viruses were killed.
The virus is less dangerous than the H5N1 bird flu virus that decimated poultry flocks and led to human deaths in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe.
