TODAY'S PAPER
Avian flu spreads to 2 more farms
Workers fall ill, but Ottawa says it's winning the battle to contain disease
By MARK HUME AND GLORIA GALLOWAY
Friday, April 9, 2004 - Page A6
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VANCOUVER; TORONTO -- Two additional poultry farms have become infected with avian flu in the Fraser Valley, and more frontline workers are sick, but officials indicated yesterday they think they are slowly winning the fight against the outbreak.
"We have completely depopulated the entire high-risk region, which we believe to be the concentrated centre of the infection," Cornelius Kiley of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said at a press conference.
Dr. Kiley said officials, who are setting out to kill 19 million birds in the Fraser Valley, have killed chickens and turkeys on all but four of the 20 infected farms and on five of six small backyard operations that tested positive for the H7N3 virus.
The federal government said yesterday that it will compensate farmers whose flocks have been killed.
"This strategy of eliminating high-risk flocks as quickly as possible will significantly minimize the risk of further virus spread. Accordingly, we should see fewer and fewer cases of infection as the work progresses," Dr. Kiley said.
"After the depopulation is complete and all premises have been cleaned and disinfected, we will enter a monitoring phase.
"We will place sentinel birds on previously infected premises to make certain that our measures have effectively eliminated any residual risk.
"Once we see that no traces of the virus remain, industry can begin to restock their premises.
"Right now, we cannot state for certain when our operations will finish. As we proceed, we will gain a better sense of time lines," Dr. Kiley said.
An official with the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control said the number of people who had become ill in association with infected flocks had increased to 17, from the initial five, but only two have been confirmed to have avian flu. Those two cases were detected several weeks ago, early in the eradication program, and more stringent safety measures, including flu vaccinations for workers, have been put in place.
The people infected had only mild flu-like symptoms and cases of pinkeye.
The food inspection agency also announced yesterday that a ban on the export of poultry products from the Fraser Valley is being lifted.
Meat from healthy birds can be shipped and sold outside British Columbia and Canada as long as it is clearly identified and not mixed with poultry products from other areas.
"In responding to diseases such as this, our primary concern is the protection of food safety and animal health. However, we are also committed to implementing disease-control measures that are no more restrictive than necessary," Dr. Kiley said.
"The CFIA's approach continues to be directed by science. And science has demonstrated that this product can be moved safely under certain circumstances."
The decision means that hundreds of tonnes of poultry that have been placed in freezer storage can move to markets outside the province.
Avian flu has never been transmitted to humans by eating poultry meat or eggs. The virus is killed by a cooking temperature of 60 to 70 degrees Celsius.
The B.C. poultry industry, which employs 5,000 people and produces 147 million kilograms of chicken and 59 million dozen eggs annually, is losing more than $3-million a week, largely because of the ban on exporting chickens from the area.
In Toronto yesterday, federal Agriculture Minister Bob Speller promised compensation, but said his primary objective is to wipe out the disease.
"Our first priority now is to really mitigate this disease and stamp it out," Mr. Speller said after meeting with provincial agriculture ministers at an airport hotel.
He refused to indicate how much compensation will be forthcoming or when it will be announced. "Frankly, we don't know the extent of this," Mr. Speller said.
"It's really too early to say . . . this is how much it's going to cost."
B.C. Agriculture Minister John van Dongen, who was at the meeting, said his government shares the federal goal of containing the disease, but will ensure that Ottawa lives up to its commitment to provide financial assistance.
"We have active groups working on the compensation issue," he said.
"I think it's very important to recognize that there is a whole range of impacts, including workers who are being laid off in feed mills and processing plants."
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