Question:
There's a huge outbreak of the Avian Flu here, in the Fraser Valley. The results are incredibly devastating.
Here's an article about it : source
Originally Posted by Avian flu infection now affecting 25 farms in B.C.
JEREMY HAINSWORTH
Canadian Press
Monday, April 12, 2004

VANCOUVER -- The number of farms infected with avian flu inside British Columbia's Fraser Valley high-risk area has increased to 25, officials said Monday.
But the increase, with three new infected sites since Friday, is not a surprise, said the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Agency spokesman Blaine Thompson said a flock of 10,000 birds was reported Monday to be infected. The farm was outside the surveillance area around Abbotsford, about 60 kilometres east of Vancouver, but inside the general control zone, he said.
The infection was found as part of a pre-slaughter check.
"There's obviously still some active virus out there that's still moving around and getting into these barns," Thompson said. "It's not surprising we found this one. There may be a few more through the pre-slaughter surveillance."
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 Monday, more than 500,000 birds had been slaughtered.
The Fraser Valley and Lower Mainland area the 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 either through burying in landfills, incineration or biological decomposition at the Fraser Valley farms.
Producers seemed satisfied the killing of some 19 million birds will contain the outbreak.
Rick Thiessen, president of the B.C. Chicken Growers Association, had not heard of the further infections until Monday but is hopeful the cull will halt any further spread of the disease.
"We need to keep on with aggressive depopulation in order to contain and stamp out the disease," he said. "It's an enormous task. We just have to stay the course."
That task includes separating the infected birds from the rest of the population, with the healthy ones sent to market.
Carcasses of infected birds are being destroyed at incinerators at the Greater Vancouver Regional District operation in suburban Burnaby and the Similko Mine between Hope and Princeton, east of Vancouver.
Others are being biologically decomposed at farms while more are being shipped in sealed containers to landfills in Chilliwack and Cache Creek.
Officials stressed movement of carcasses will be done in accordance with strict agency protocols to ensure health concerns are met.
But, say Cache Creek Mayor John Ranta and nearby Ashcroft Mayor Andy Kormendy, their landfill is not equipped to deal with hazardous and special waste.
Ranta said he's been unable to convince B.C. Agriculture Minister John Van Dongen not to send the birds to Cache Creek. He has asked for a meeting with Premier Gordon Campbell on the issue.
The highly pathogenic H7N3 virus infecting Fraser Valley flocks has been found only in large commercial poultry operations and in some backyard flocks.
The proximity of the outbreak to Washington State's Sumas poultry, cattle and dairy region has caught the attention of the United States' Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
"I've been told that CFIA at very high levels have been in contact with high levels of the (United States Department of Agriculture)," Thiessen said.
What are your thoughts?


Answer:
I think their focus is in the wrong spot, really.
If there is such a huge risk still (regardless of whether or not they deny it), then shouldn't they have people studying the virus more to see if they can come up with a remedy of sorts? Or at least a remedy for when the virus mutates and humans are affected?
Sure the few people who have actually had the avian flu are ok now, but what about 10 years down the road, or even three months later (as that's how long the virus can live in chicken excrement).
Who knows? Maybe because of those 2-3 people who had it, 3 months down the road, all of Abbotsford may have the disease (not just the chickens), or worse yet, all of the Lower Mainland.
Yes, it is important to get rid of the source to stop it from spreading, but why isn't anyone telling us what's being done to prevent it from spreading to humans or to stop it if it does spread to humans?


Answer:
One of my friends owns a broiler farm in Abbotsford, and they lost all their chickens


Answer:
I work with someone whos family ownes 18 chicken farms..........broliers and layers.............all the layers will be killed and the broilers will only be sold if they are avian free............it is quite devastating for them....a huge loss of money


Answer:
That's so awful!! All those lives lost


Answer:
It's a terrible thing, and as a chicken owner and bird lover, one I worry about. I hope research is being done into a vaccine.


Answer:
Very tragic, & I think factory farms can only intensify the problem.


Answer:
Originally Posted by velvetrabbit
I think their focus is in the wrong spot, really.
If there is such a huge risk still (regardless of whether or not they deny it), then shouldn't they have people studying the virus more to see if they can come up with a remedy of sorts? Or at least a remedy for when the virus mutates and humans are affected?
Sure the few people who have actually had the avian flu are ok now, but what about 10 years down the road, or even three months later (as that's how long the virus can live in chicken excrement).
Who knows? Maybe because of those 2-3 people who had it, 3 months down the road, all of Abbotsford may have the disease (not just the chickens), or worse yet, all of the Lower Mainland.
Yes, it is important to get rid of the source to stop it from spreading, but why isn't anyone telling us what's being done to prevent it from spreading to humans or to stop it if it does spread to humans?
Despite what you may be thinking, research on the avian flu HAS been in progress, and they've been doing it since the illness came about. They aren't stupid, and there's no way they'd just kill all these birds for nothing and hope that the problem solves itself. The medical society is not a group of bumbling idiots, and seeing as this is a present threat to humans and birds alike, yes I would say they're researching it.
The reason they aren't telling people what progress is being made is probably because they don't have anything solid enough to tell the public yet on the matter. It's not a big conspiracy, though that would make it more exciting. Sorry, but it just isn't. They're not doing this to be mean to the birds, or to gain something (well, of course everyone gains something from these kind of things, but that's beside the point) from the misery this outbreak is causing. You know, there's a lot at stake where things like this occur, not just animal and human lives, but economic loss as well.


Answer:
Center for Disease Control info on avian flu:
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/avian/
Research into vaccine:
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/con...2004avian.html


Answer:
Ok,
I meant that the MEDIA was putting too much emphasis on the wrong things.
Yes, I understand that they know what they're doing (even if the gov't doesnt)