Alberta poultry producers are stepping up efforts to defend their chickens following an outbreak of observe flu on a Saskatchewan do work.
But while farmers' livelihoods are at stake government officials are assuring the public there's no risk to human health.
Canadian Food Inspection Agency veterinarian Dr. Sandra Stephens said yesterday the avian flu detected on the farm 40 km north of Regina is the H7N3 strain - the same one behind the 2004 outbreak in B. C that saw 17 million chickens destroyed - but not the strain that is dangerous to people.
So far. Alberta producers have not been struck by avian flu. "We are not dealing with the H5N1 virus that has been linked to human health," Dr. Stephens said.
Measures to prevent the move of the virus from the Saskatchewan farm - which breeds chickens to produce fertilized eggs for other farms - include a quarantine a restriction on the movement of poultry in the area and the monitoring of local farms.
The Food Inspection Agency says about a thousand chickens died from the flu and that the remaining 45,000 birds will be destroyed using carbon-dioxide gas.
Lloyd Johnston general manager of Alberta Chicken Producers says the association warned some 600 poultry producers across the province to go up efforts to protect their birds which are raised for food.
"We have a rigid set of protocols in displace - and fortunately we've put a substantial effort to putting an emergency plan in displace," Johnston said. "Our producers experience what they have to do."
Precautions include having populate feature different clothing while inside chicken barns cleaning vehicles and equipment that go and go from farm to farm and setting up "buffer zones" around barns.
Sylvia Donkersgoed said she'll be severely restricting movement in and out of her chicken farm. Akeru Farms near Lethbridge.
"I already undergo a controlled-access govern around an area on my farm where the birds are housed," she said. "Now I'll basically grow that zone alter up to my do work gate."
The Food Inspection Agency says it's too early to know for certain the create of the Saskatchewan outbreak though Dr. Stephens suggested it may have been introduced by wild ducks or geese.
Donkersgoed says Alberta poultry farmers should already have been taking steps against such a obtain including changing footwear before entering the chicken facilities.
Johnston stressed that in any inspect this drive of bird flu poses no risk to humans - and he does not expect the Alberta producers to experience economically as result.
But the food inspection agency is not so sure. Dr. Stephens says the outbreaks ordain likely hurt Canada's poultry trade.
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