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Eighty percent of British Columbia’s poultry farms are located in Abbotsford
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Cases of bird flu have been confirmed in several provinces, but no infections have been found in humans. Photo by Lindsay Shui / ASSOCIATED PRESS
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The bird flu was found in a commercial flock in the Fraser Valley, the same area where 80 percent of British Columbia’s poultry farms are located.
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This is the first case of disease on a farm in the Fraser Valley.
The British Columbia Department of Agriculture said in a statement that the infected farm had been quarantined by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and producers had been notified of the discovery within a 10-kilometer radius.
Previous outbreaks in the Fraser Valley have killed millions of birds, although poultry groups now say they have strict controls in place to prevent them from spreading from one farm to another.
The inspection agency’s website says the H5N1 virus has been found in several wild birds and nine flocks across the province, starting at a trading farm in North Okanagan on April 13th.
The agency says it suspects the flu is spreading through contact with infected migratory wild birds and advises owners to reduce human access to their flocks while increasing the cleaning of clothes and shoes when entering barns.
BC recently extended its order for all poultry traders with more than 100 birds to keep their flocks indoors until June 13.
Cases of bird flu have been confirmed in several other provinces, but no infections have been found in humans.
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