Number of B.C. farms identified with avian flu up to seven

Dec 12, 2014

H5N2 found at farms near Chilliwack and Abbotsford

By Diego Flammini, Farms.com

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) identified two more farms in British Columbia, bringing the total number to seven. The added farms bring the total number of birds to be euthanized up to 155,000 from 140,000.

Officials still don’t know the origin of the avian flu and there is speculation more farms could be infected.

"The identification of additional farms is not unexpected, given that avian influenza is highly contagious," Harpreet Kochhar, Canada's chief veterinary officer, said Wednesday in a conference call with reporters.

As a result of the original outbreak, the United States, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, South Africa, Mexico, and China installed bans on B.C. poultry and in some cases, any poultry coming from Canada.

Customers hopeful of finding that turkey for Christmas dinner shouldn’t be worried about a shortage.

“The number of birds being euthanized that would have made it for Christmas is probably only 1% of those produced,” said Phil Boyd, Executive Director of Turkey Farmers of Canada. “With some rescheduling of birds and transportation, there shouldn’t be any shortage.

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