B.C. Bird flu diagnosis
'We have a lot of work to do': Clean up your act or government will, minister tells poultry industry
Chad Skelton, Vancouver Sun
Published: Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Agriculture and Lands Minister Pat Bell says the poultry industry has not moved quickly enough to prevent another outbreak of bird flu and the government will take action if things don't improve.
"I am not content with where we are with biosecurity, specifically as it relates to our [poultry] industries. I think we have a lot of work to do," he said in an interview Tuesday. "I don't believe that we are anywhere near where we need to be."
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Bell was commenting after The Vancouver Sun obtained internal documents showing that a provincial Agriculture Ministry official warned his superiors two weeks before last fall's bird-flu outbreak that B.C.'s poultry industry was not taking biosecurity measures seriously enough.
"In a nutshell ... this is not looking good," Grant Thompson, assistant director of the ministry's industry competitiveness branch wrote in an e-mail on Nov. 6.
"Industry has not pushed forward on very many issues and, in fact, I think we are lagging behind other provinces despite having the [2004 bird flu] outbreak here in B.C. It appears others have learned from this tragedy far better than our own industry."
Thompson's e-mail -- obtained by The Sun through the Freedom of Information Act -- was sent to several senior staff in the ministry, including chief veterinarian Ron Lewis and Harvey Sasaki, assistant deputy minister for risk management.
Twelve days later, on Nov. 18, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency began culling more than 67,000 birds at the Fraser Valley Duck and Goose Farm in Chilliwack after a duck tested positive for the H5N2 strain of bird flu.
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Four days after that, another farm tested positive for the virus.
Those incidents followed a massive outbreak in 2004 that led to the culling of 17 million birds in the Fraser Valley.
Ray Nickel, president of the B.C. Poultry Association, said his industry is committed to reducing the risk of another outbreak.
"B.C. has had a very active biosecurity industry committee that has been working on on-farm initiatives," he said. "There have been significant steps in ensuring safety."
A report on the 2004 outbreak by the CFIA concluded that poor biosecurity measures in the Fraser Valley -- together with the high density of farms in the region -- contributed to the virus's rapid spread.
To address those concerns, B.C.'s poultry industry developed a new biosecurity manual for farmers that provided advice on preventing contamination.
Those measures include farmers not wearing the same boots outside as they do in their barns and ensuring drinking water for poultry does not come from surface water sources that can be contaminated by wild birds.
But in a report attached to his e-mail, Thompson indicates the industry has been reluctant to make the new rules mandatory and agree to audits to ensure farmers are following them.
"Government agencies are pushing for mandatory biosecurity measures in place on all B.C. poultry farms by April 2007," it states. "This is being met with resistance by industry who feels a voluntary approach is required."
The report states the industry has achieved only "marginal implementation of improved biosecurity standards at the farm level" and that a "work plan to assess biosecurity 'gaps' still needs to be conducted."
Efforts to develop an emergency response plan for future outbreaks have also lagged, the report states.
"Discussions with B.C. industry have not taken place despite requests from government," it states. "No formal communication plan is yet in place."
Bell said if the industry doesn't improve its record in the near future, he won't hesitate to bring in new legislation to force it to do so.
"I was a bit surprised when I found out in the fall that [the poultry industry] had not executed on their biosecurity plans to the level that we had expected them to," he said. "At that point I started pushing fairly hard ... and my message is always pretty consistent: If you choose not to comply, we can put appropriate regulation in place to ensure you are complying."
Nickel said his industry is not opposed to enforcement measures and is working with the government to develop a plan.
A ministry paper on biosecurity, attached to Thompson's e-mail, stresses that reducing the risk of another bird flu outbreak in B.C. is important both because of the economic impact on the poultry industry and the "very real human health risks associated with [bird flu]."
A total of 98 people in Asia and Europe have died from the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu.
Neither outbreak in the Fraser Valley involved that strain.
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=1448c7f5-545a-4e73-bc8c-782efee582cd&k=10971
 Nobody understands...any help please?
 50 points for someone willing to do this!!!!!!!!!!?
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'We have a lot of work to do': Clean up your act or government will, minister tells p