Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Half of British Columbia in avian flu control zone

Half of British Columbia has been declared an avian influenza control zone by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

And the CFIA is trying to persuade trading partners who have banned poultry to reduce that ban to the control zone.

The United States, Mexico, Japan and South Korea are among nations that have banned poultry from Canada since the outbreak of H5N2 high-pathogenic avian influenza that began with one turkey farm near Abbotsford and one broiler breeder chicken farm near Chiliwack.

That has since expanded to two turkey and three chicken farms with about 150,000 birds.

The CFIA controls increase closer to the farms that have been hit by this virus.

Dr. Harpreet Kochhar, Canada's chief veterinary officer, said the control zone is meant to reassure the international community, especially countries that have temporarily banned poultry products from Canada.

"Those who have put some restrictions on all of Canada will start to look at reducing that to only British Columbia or the Fraser Valley," he told reporters Monday in a conference call.

The zone boundaries are the Pacific Ocean on the west, the U.S. border to the south, the B.C.-Alberta boundary, and Highway 16, which intersects the province at Prince George.

Mike Dungate, executive director of the Chicken Farmers of Canada, said producers have been pushing for a larger control area.

"Because we lived through this in 2004," he said. "In 2004, they made the control area too small at the start and had to enlarge it."