April 13, 2004

 

 

Canada Bird Flu Spreads To 25 Farms
 

 

The bird flu outbreak in Canada has spread to 25 farms inside British Columbia's Fraser Valley, officials said on Monday.

 

But the increase, with three new infected sites since Friday, is not a surprise, said the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Agency spokesman Blaine Thompson said a flock of 10,000 birds was reported Monday to be infected.

 

The farm was outside the surveillance area around Abbotsford, about 60 kilometres east of Vancouver, but inside the general control zone, he said.

 

The infection was found as part of a pre-slaughter check.

 

"There's obviously still some active virus out there that's still moving around and getting into these barns," Thompson said. "It's not surprising we found this one. There may be a few more through the pre-slaughter surveillance."

 

Thompson said the disease's spread will slow as more birds are slaughtered. Four known infected flocks remain to be slaughtered, he said.

 

As of Monday, more than 500,000 birds had been slaughtered.

 

B.C. Agriculture Minister John van Dongen said if the area can get through three weeks without a new infection "it will be the first indication we're getting on top of the problem."

 

The Fraser Valley and the Lower Mainland area that covers Vancouver's outlying suburbs have been established as a control zone for the outbreak.

 

Van Dongen said no new cases are expected outside the control zone.

 

An order was signed Saturday under the provincial Emergency Program Act to allow officials to eradicate the infection and dispose of carcasses either through burying in landfills, incineration or biological decomposition at the Fraser Valley farms.

 

"We're in an emergency situation," van Dongen said, explaining the order. "It's on the scale of a flood or a forest fire."

 

Producers seemed satisfied the killing of some 19 million birds will contain the outbreak.

 

Rick Thiessen, president of the B.C. Chicken Growers Association, had not heard of the further infections until Monday but is hopeful the cull will halt any further spread of the disease.

 

"We need to keep on with aggressive depopulation in order to contain and stamp out the disease," he said. "It's an enormous task. We just have to stay the course."

 

That task includes separating the infected birds from the rest of the population, with the healthy ones sent to market.

 

Carcasses of infected birds are being destroyed at incinerators at the Greater Vancouver Regional District operation in suburban Burnaby and the Similko Mine between Hope and Princeton, east of Vancouver.

 

Others are being biologically decomposed at farms while more are being shipped in sealed containers to landfills in Chilliwack and Cache Creek.

 

Officials stressed movement of carcasses will be done in accordance with strict agency protocols to ensure health concerns are met.

 

But, say Cache Creek Mayor John Ranta and nearby Ashcroft Mayor Andy Kormendy, their landfill is not equipped to deal with hazardous and special waste.

 

Ranta said he's been unable to convince van Dongen not to send the birds to Cache Creek. He has asked for a meeting with Premier Gordon Campbell on the issue.

 

The minister has appealed with the mayors to understand the scale of the crisis and co-operate.

 

"This is not a human health issue," van Dongen stressed. "It's being handled in such a way that it is not an animal health issue.

 

"I understand their concerns. We're asking for their support."

 

The highly pathogenic H7N3 virus infecting Fraser Valley flocks has been found only in large commercial poultry operations and in some backyard flocks.

 

The proximity of the outbreak to Washington State's Sumas poultry, cattle and dairy region has caught the attention of the United States' Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

 

"I've been told that CFIA at very high levels have been in contact with high levels of the (United States Department of Agriculture)," Thiessen said.

 

Thompson said the U.S. Agriculture Department is receiving daily briefings on the situation.

 

Fraser Valley and Lower Mainland poultry production represents about 80 per cent of the province's 600 poultry producers.

 

The industry generates about $1 billion per year in revenue and employs more than 5,000 people.

 

While the crisis has cost the industry in excess of $10 million so far, Thiessen said no compensation package has yet been offered to producers.

 

"There have still been no specifics from the federal or provincial governments," he said. "We're hopeful some word will come soon. It's a trying time for everyone in the industry.

 

"We don't know how long it's going to last and when we can re-populate."