Thursday, March 12, 2015

B.C. quarantine lifted


The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has lifted the general quarantine covering southern British Columbia because there have been no recent outbreaks of H5N2 influenza in poultry flocks.
Specific quarantines remain in place, especially around three properties at Aldergrove and Chilliwack that have not yet passed the 21-day post-disinfection quarantine period.
The quarantines began in December when five commercial poultry farms were hit by the virus, probably arriving in the lower Fraser Valley with migrating ducks and geese.
Eventually 11 commercial poultry operations and one backyard flock were infected.
The last case was Feb. 2, and was a different strain – H5N1  - - and was in a backyard flock.
Canada has yet to clear trading bans imposed by a number of nations.
Now it’s the United States that is battling the H5N2 virus which has spread from Minnesota to Missouri and Arkansas – the Mississippi River flyway for ducks and geese – hitting commercial turkey flocks hard. Forty nations, including Canada, have banned U.S. poultry.