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."
