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Canadian bird flu cases spreading
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-04-03 11:45
Bird flu is spreading quickly in British Columbia, and officials said on
Friday they were studying an industry proposal that could lead to the slaughter
of up 16 million birds to bring the situation under control.
Avian influenza has been diagnosed on 18 poultry farms in the Fraser Valley
region east of Vancouver with up to 500,000 birds, but none of the strains
identified so far were of a type known to cause serious illnesses in humans.
"It's spreading, and its spreading quickly," said Brian Evans, chief
veterinarian with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
Officials have been trying to control the spread by eliminating flocks in the
immediate area of Abbotsford, where the first case was discovered last month,
but industry representatives want the "depopulation" extended to a much wider
area.
"We have said to the industry that what they are proposing to us is an
aggressive action," Evans told reporters in Abbotsford.
The industry proposal would include chickens, turkeys and other commercial
poultry.
Federal Agriculture Minister Bob Speller, who toured the region on
Friday, said he would decide on the industry's proposal once he had received a
recommendation from his staff. Evans said a decision would be made "in days
rather than weeks."
Officials said they believe the disease was spread between the farms by
human activity rather than by ducks or other wild birds, which are believed to
have been the source of infection at the first farm.
Evans said CFIA was concentrating on ensuring farmers use proper
"bio-security measures" to limit the accidental spread of the disease by people
or equipment.
Although the strain of the virus at the heart of the outbreak is not
known to cause serious illness in humans, a health official said they want to
eradicate it before it mutates into a more serious strain.
Two workers involved in eradicating infected birds have suffered mild
illnesses doctors believe were contracted from the animals but have both since
recovered.
British Columbia is not a significant source of poultry exports, but the
outbreak has prompted the food inspection agency to ban the shipment of chickens
out of the Fraser River region of southwestern British Columbia.
The flu strain found at the first farm was originally diagnosed as a
low-pathogenic version of the virus, but officials later discovered it had
mutated to a high-pathogenic version.
The pathogenicity is a measure of how the virus behaves in birds,
agriculture officials stress.
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