May 28, 2004

Canadian Bird-flu Threat Ends With Chicken Cull 
 

Avian flu has been virtually stamped out in B.C.'s Fraser Valley, emergency officials said yesterday, leaving empty barns and destitute farmers in its wake.

There is simply no more fuel to spread the virus, now that crews have completed the cull of 1.3 million birds on 42 infected properties. More than 15 million more chickens were ordered slaughtered after testing negative, then processed for human consumption.

"We find ourselves at a moment in time right now where we have re-evaluated the situation and, based upon the very good control that we have of the situation, we are suspending the depopulation," said Cornelius Kiley, B.C.'s chief Canadian Food Inspection Agency veterinarian. "We continue to do surveillance across the entire valley and remain alert to the possibility that this could flare up again."

Kiley said 10 per cent of the chickens in the valley remain untouched, and will be spared as long as there is no further spread.

Those birds are owned mostly by breeder operations in Chilliwack, in the eastern region of the Fraser Valley where no infection was ever detected.