- VANCOUVER (CP) -- Avian flu
has spread to poultry beyond a tightly guarded hot zone in the Fraser Valley
where hundreds of thousands of chickens are in the process of being culled,
federal health officials confirmed late Wednesday.
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- Test results showed birds were infected on a farm located
somewhere in a broad area including the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley
region, said a statement released by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
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- It's the first time the flu has been detected among birds
outside a five-kilometre high-risk zone near Abbotsford where the first
avian case was detected last month.
-
- So far six farms in the hot zone have been confirmed
to have infected birds.
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- Health officials announced last week they would kill
all poultry in the rural area in a bid to halt the flu's movement.
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- "Given the highly contagious nature of the disease
the possibility of finding further cases cannot be excluded," said
the CFIA statement.
-
- Also on Wednesday, the federal agency announced it had
quarantined a second farm outside the hot zone "on the basis of preliminary
test results."
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- "The quarantine is a precautionary measure and tests
are ongoing to gain conclusive information about the farm's disease status,"
said the CFIA.
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- The initial farm was quarantined Monday and birds there
were slaughtered before the disease was suspected, said the agency.
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- The H7 variety of the avian flu detected on the B.C.
farms is not the same as the strain that has killed people in Asia and
is not believed to pose any serious risk to humans.
-
- The CFIA statement did not say whether precautionary
measures might be altered or added in the wake of Wednesday's confirmation.
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- "All needed resources are being dedicated to control
the spread of avian influenza in the control area and the CFIA is continuing
its rigorous surveillance activities," said the agency.
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- One bird flu expert predicted earlier in the week that,
should the flu be detected outside the high-risk zone, tighter restrictions
and more chicken slaughter would have to follow.
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- "I can't quote a number, but I think you'd want
to jump more than another five kilometres," Earl Brown, who teaches
at the University of Ottawa, said. "I think you'd want to kill a lot
of chickens."
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- Health officials designated the entire Lower Mainland
and Fraser Valley an avian flu "control area" earlier this month.
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- Control area regulations restrict the movement of any
bird in captivity, including pets, day-old chicks and hatching eggs.
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- The B.C. government said earlier this week it would have
to look at bringing in heavy duty incinerators to deal with the hundreds
of thousands of birds killed within the high-risk zone.
-
- The dead poultry has been shipped to the small community
of Princeton, B.C., for incineration, but Bill Barisoff, the minister responsible,
said the government was looking at granting permits in the Fraser Valley.
-
- His comments came the day Princeton Mayor Keith Olsen
said his council and the Okanagan-Similkameen regional district had unanimously
voted to ask the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to stop bringing birds
to the community.
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- Mr. Olsen said he was unhappy about his community being
a dumping ground for infected birds and he said community leaders didn't
realize so much dead poultry would end up in Princeton.
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- It was also confirmed last week that a CFIA contract
worker had picked up the avian flu virus.
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- The person exhibited conjunctivitis, or pink eye, and
the symptoms have since cleared up.
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