March 25, 2004

Canada Mulls Mass Cull As Bird Flu Precaution

Canadian authorities are considering a mass cull of poultry in a high-risk zone for bird flu in British Columbia's Fraser Valley.
 
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says the avian flu has surfaced at a fourth farm in the Abbotsford area and is suspected at a fifth farm where several birds died.
 
A total of 30,000 chickens will be killed on those two farms in a bid to quash the virus.
 
All five farms are in the same area and the agency says multiple infection sites are consistent with the highly contagious nature of the virus.
 
Agency officials also say they also have a contingency plan to destroy all 200,000 chickens and turkeys in the immediate vicinity of the five farms.
 
Seventeen area farms with 110,000 birds are so far free of the disease.
 
The milder form of the bird flu isn't considered dangerous to humans and isn't the same strain that has killed several people in Asia.