October 3, 2007
Canadian farm hit by bird-flu still awaiting clean-up
Nearly a week after Canada announced a bird flu incident at a Saskatchewan chicken farm, its owners are still awaiting money for clean-up and disinfection procedures.
Thomas Glen, whose family owns the Pedigree Poultry farm north of Regina, said he could not comprehend why the federal government and poultry industry have not come forward to offer financial assistance.
Glen said he was shocked at the lack of support for their plight and are pleading for public money to handle the cleanup.
Glen said the incident is having an adverse effect on all of Canada, especially in the poultry business. There has to be some cleanup going but there is lack of support, he added.
The cleaning and disinfecting is critical as it is needed to alleviate public health worries and limit the economic impact on Canadian exports, he said.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency announced last week that a highly pathogenic form of the H7N3 avian flu virus was found on the farm, and placed a surrounding three-kilometre area under quarantine.
The CFIA , who oversaw the mass killing of 50,000 chickens at the farm, said responsibility for cleaning the property resides with the property owner.
The CFIA said it would supervise the burying of the carcasses in four-metre deep pits but the cleaning and disinfecting of the barns must be done by the owner.
The CFIA would be in charge of ensuring that the disinfection was done properly.
A spokeswoman said the virus is fragile so it would fairly easily killed by most disinfectants.
China, Korea and Japan have banned poultry products from Canada while the US, Taiwan and Hong Kong imposed a regional ban on exports from the province of Saskatchewan.
About 7.5 percent of the income of the Canadian poultry industry comes from exports.
The CFIA says there is no indication that the virus has spread beyond the infected farm. Farms in the three-kilometre zone around the infected farm have tested negative for the virus, the CFIA said.
