At that time, more than 17 million birds, mostly in the Fraser Valley, had to be destroyed because of avian flu. This week, another 7 poultry farms in the Fraser Valley east of Vancouver were put under quarantine, after 3 of the farms had confirmed cases of the deadly H5N1 strain, the same strain that's resulted in the culling of hundreds of thousands of birds this year in Alberta and in other parts of the country as well.
There are still several active cases of avian flu here in the province. BC's ag minister told reporters this week, the H5N1 strain is behaving very differently than previous variants. "This year has been a lot more difficult. We haven't seen the pressure, disease pressure get alleviated as we normally would. I feel confident that we're going to get on top of this, but currently right now, there is a lot of pressure."Lana Popham says the inspection agency has protocols in place to deal with infected farms and that of course means surviving birds,sick or not, will have to be destroyed. She says the situation right now isn't as bad as 2004 and they hope it won't get there.
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