December 15, 2005

Canada inches towards bird flu-free status

Canada is slowly inching towards being bird flu free again as some poultry farms in British Columbia's Fraser Valley are declared free of the disease.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and British Columbia's Ministry of Agriculture and Lands have declared the poultry farms in two surveillance zones there to be free of bird flu, after three rounds of weekly testing detected no further evidence of infection.

The surveillance zones and all related quarantines affecting 80 premises have also been removed.

After the detection of a low pathogenic bird flu virus on two duck farms there, the CFIA quarantined the premises on Nov 18 as a precautionary measure. All commercial poultry farms within 5 kilometres of the infected premises were placed under surveillance, while birds on each farm were tested.

The agency has now declared the zones to be disease-free following 21 days of negative test results. The lifting of the quarantine means that the normal movement of commercial poultry and poultry products in the surveillance zones can resume.

However, the two farms on which the virus was detected remain under quarantine until the agency verifies that cleaning and disinfections have been completed.