Saturday, July 9, 2016

High biosecurity urged as AI found


The poultry industry is on high biosecurity alert after a flock of 14,000 ducks in St. Catharines has been hit by the H5N2 strain of avian influenza.

There are at least one broiler farm and 23 small flock operations within the three-kilometre quarantine zone established by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

Those flock owners will need a CFIA permit to move things in and out of that quarantine zone.

The poultry marketing boards have revived their action centre to help deal with the situation.

The outbreak will probably curb, if not ban, Canadian poultry exports to many countries.

That could spell a return to trouble for companies such as Hybrid Turkeys of Kitchener and Shaver Poultry of Cambridge that export breeding stock.