- The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has ordered the unprecedented
destruction of all 365,000 birds in a "hot zone" in the Fraser
Valley where the first B.C. case of avian flu was discovered last month.
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- The agency issued the directive late Wednesday afternoon
after discussions with the area's commercial producers.
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- About 90,000 birds have been destroyed in the past two
weeks and 275,000 more birds will be slaughtered to prevent any further
spread of the virus.
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- The birds, which include chickens and turkeys, are from
10 commercial operations and 33 backyard flocks in an area tagged the "high-risk
region" by the agency. The area, bounded by the Fraser River, Sumas
Mountain, Highway 11 and Clayburn Road, measures roughly eight kilometres
by 10 kilometres.
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- "The reason for this move is to eradicate and stamp
out the virus," said Vic Regier, a spokesman for the industry and
head of the B.C. Broiler Hatching Egg Commission. "We have an industry
in B.C. worth a lot of money and we want to maintain it. If we don't stamp
it out, it will get around the province."
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- Since the first case of confirmed avian flu was discovered
Feb. 19 at the Loewen Acres poultry farm, four more farms in the surrounding
area have been found to be infected. All the birds infected were in commercial
operations and Regier said the backyard flocks, which have at most 100
birds, have not had any signs of the virus.
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- The birds produced within the area represent two per
cent of the province's flock and Regier said the mass depopulation is the
first time such a large number of birds have been destroyed in B.C. and
possibly in Canada.
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- "Financially, the producers will be okay with it
but having their farms depopulated will be quite a blow," Regier said.
"For most of these people, this is a lifestyle that will suddenly
disappear."
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- The federal government will be providing compensation
to the producers and B.C. Agriculture Minister John van Dongen said assistance
from the province may also be available.
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- The B.C. poultry industry is worth $850 million. Producers
will be paid a maximum of $33 per bird. At that price, the affected producers
would get about $12 million.
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- After the slaughter, Regier said, the CFIA will have
to give its approval before people can begin breeding birds again in the
so-called hot zone. The time that will take is impossible to calculate,
he said.
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- About 15 million birds destined for consumer consumption
are hatched every eight weeks in B.C. In the Lower Mainland alone, more
than 350,000 birds a day are prepared by poultry wholesalers such as Sunrise
and Wingtat.
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- In a release, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said
the "depopulation is intended to contain further disease spread by
eliminating the pool of infection and susceptible birds present in the
high-risk region."
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- "This is a new experience for us and we must deal
with it aggressively," Cornelius Kiley, regional veterinary officer
for the CFIA, told a news conference Wednesday.
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- The virus has not been found at any farms near the borders
of the hot zone, according to van Dongen.
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- However, van Dongen said Wednesday, provincial and federal
officials will continue to monitor within that zone, outside the zone and
throughout the rest of the province for any signs the virus has spread.
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- "The indications of the scientists and the veterinarians
are there is no guarantee at this point," he said. "They believe
that the virus is contained at this point."
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- While no other infections have been found outside the
five confirmed cases, there is concern that the disease may spread farther
than that immediate area because it can be carried by wild birds.
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- Pet birds are not being targeted for slaughter within
the hot zone, but the CFIA is increasing its sampling of dead birds in
the area surrounding it.
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- The risk to human health remains low. The H7 virus found
in the Fraser Valley farms has never been shown to affect humans and is
not the same strain of virus that exists in Asia.
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- Eight Asian countries, including Indonesia, have been
battling a severe type of avian influenza virus, and about 100 million
chickens have either died from the illness or been slaughtered since December.
The virus has jumped to humans only in Vietnam and Thailand, where a total
of 24 people have died.
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- © The Vancouver Sun 2004
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- http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/news/story.
html?id=3e547b00-f7d8-463f-8df0-9d8e19fef7e9
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