John Lehmann/The Globe and Mail
Two Fraser Valley poultry farms have been placed under quarantine and others are stepping up biosecurity precautions after tests found H5 avian influenza at the two operations.
About 12,000 birds are expected to be killed as part of an effort to stop the virus from spreading to other farms.
Authorities do not yet know the exact strain involved or how it wound up at the two sites: a turkey farm in Abbotsford and a broiler breeder farm in Chilliwack that are about eight kilometres apart and so far at least, have no obvious connections.
"I don't think we can even safely say whether this points to either migratory birds or the possibility of some interaction that we are not aware of at this point," Jane Pritchard, chief veterinary officer with B.C.'s Ministry of Agriculture, said Tuesday on a conference call.
Avian influenza viruses do not pose a food-safety risk as long as poultry products are properly cooked. And the viruses rarely affect humans who do not have consistent contact with infected birds.
There have been previous avian-influenza outbreaks in the Fraser Valley, including one in 2004 involving the H7N3 virus that resulted in about 17 million birds, nearly all the poultry in the region, having to be destroyed.
Preliminary testing has identified the virus in these new incidents as H5, but further testing is required to determine the exact strain. Those results are expected within days.
The Chilliwack operation had about 7,000 chickens, about 1,000 of which had already died. The Abbotsford facility had about 11,000 turkeys, about half of which had already died.
All of the birds from both operations are to be destroyed. The turkeys had been targeted for the Christmas market.
"We provide product all year round, but turkey would be the most seasonal of our products," said Ray Nickel, a spokesman for the B.C. Poultry Association. "Christmastime is obviously important and this is an important time for sales."
But he does not anticipate a shortage, saying there are about 60 turkey producers in the Fraser Valley region.
"Although the numbers sound like those are large farms, relative to the industry, we have lots of product," he said.
Initial tests were conducted on Dec. 1 after both operations reported sudden deaths of birds over the weekend. The CFIA will set up a surveillance zone for further testing and the industry has been put on notice to step up its safeguards.
"The farms that are surrounding those [affected sites] will really tighten up their movement controls – so you won't be getting visitors on the farm, the gates will be getting locked and closed every time someone goes in and out," Mr. Nickel said.
Birds on the infected sites will be killed and disposed of according to environmental and disease-control guidelines. The birds will be composted inside the barns.
"Over the previous episodes of avian influenza in B.C., the ministry of agriculture has developed quite a bit of expertise in humanely euthanizing the birds using carbon-dioxide gas," Dr. Pritchard said.
Wendy Stueck