Twenty-five farms infected with bird flu in B.C.

By The Associated Press

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But the increase, with three new infected sites since Friday, is not a surprise, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said.

Agency spokesman Blaine Thompson said a flock of 10,000 birds was reported yesterday to be infected.

The farm was outside the surveillance area around Abbotsford, 35 miles east of Vancouver, but inside the general control zone, he said.

The infection was found as part of a preslaughter check.

"There's obviously still some active virus out there that's still moving around and getting into these barns," Thompson said.

Thompson said the disease's spread will slow as more birds are slaughtered. Four known infected flocks remain to be slaughtered, he said.

As of yesterday, more than 500,000 birds had been killed. Some 19 million birds are to be killed in all.

Two workers have caught mild forms of the H7 avian flu but have recovered. The strain, unlike the flu that killed 24 people in Thailand and Vietnam, is not considered life-threatening to humans.

The Fraser Valley and the lower mainland area that covers Vancouver's outlying suburbs have been established as a control zone for the outbreak.

An order was signed Saturday under the provincial Emergency Program Act to allow officials to eradicate the infection and dispose of carcasses through burying in landfills, incineration or biological decomposition at the Fraser Valley farms.
 
Producers seemed satisfied the killing of the 19 million birds would contain the outbreak.

The task includes separating the infected birds from the rest of the population, with the healthy ones sent to market.

The proximity of the outbreak to Washington's poultry, cattle and dairy region around Sumas, Whatcom County, has caught the attention of the U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

Thompson said the U.S. Agriculture Department is receiving daily briefings.

Carcasses of some infected birds are being destroyed at incinerators. Others are being biologically decomposed at farms while more are being shipped in sealed containers to landfills in Chilliwack and Cache Creek.

Fraser Valley and lower-mainland poultry production represents about 80 percent of British Columbia's 600 poultry producers.

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