Canada Increases Avian Flu Surveillance

[niman]

Canada steps up avian flu surveillance

 

https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2015AGRI0077-002139

Edited December 19, 2015 by niman

[niman]

The governments of Canada and B.C. are investing $300,000 to strengthen the surveillance, early detection, and response measures to avian flu.

The funding will be used to enhance the resources at the Ministry of Agriculture’s Animal Health Centre in Abbotsford with specialized equipment to diagnose samples collected in the Ministry’s avian flu surveillance efforts.

Ministry of Agriculture staff began a pilot surveillance project that collected sediment samples at ponds and wetlands used by wild waterfowl following the December 2014 avian flu outbreak in the Fraser Valley. A research group has worked at developing cutting-edge technological advances to be able to test the samples collected from the pilot project for the presence of avian flu strains. Funds will be used to transfer this new technology to the Animal Health Centre. As the pilot project evolves into ongoing surveillance, the ability to diagnose the samples quickly at the Animal Health Centre will greatly enhance early detection efforts.

The Ministry of Agriculture will also be targeting owners of small poultry flocks by hosting workshops in different regions focusing on poultry health, and the sharing of information and resources such as the Small Flock Poultry Health Manual at:http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/ahc/poultry/small_flock_manual.pdf
Additional bio-security planning information for small flock owners is at:www.protectmyflock.ca/pmf/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Biosecurity-Guide-for-Non-Supply-Managed-Poultry1.pdf

In addition, funding is being provided to support a rapid response to any future outbreaks by having mobile equipment to help any infected poultry premises with the humane depopulation of infected bird populations within the province at all times and to train more responders in its use.

The $300,000 is provided through the Biosecurity and Surveillance Program under Growing Forward 2, a five-year agreement launched in 2013 that provides a $3-billion, federal-provincial-territorial government investment in innovation, competitiveness and market development. Information on the Biosecurity and Surveillance Program is at:http://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/industry/agriculture-seafood/programs/growing-forward-2/biosecurity-surveillance

Learn More:

Ministry of Agriculture Animal Health Centre Information:https://www.newsroom.gov.bc.ca/2014/03/bc-animal-health-centre-expertise-endorsed.html

2014 Fraser Valley Avian Flu Response: http://www.inspection.gc.ca/animals/terrestrial-animals/diseases/reportable/ai/2014-2015-ai-investigation-in-bc/eng/1418491040802/1418491095666

[niman]

Biosecurity breaches exposed within Fraser Valley poultry industry

 

Rodent infestations and improper disposal of dead birds among issues, freedom of information documents reveal

 

BY LARRY PYNN, VANCOUVER SUN DECEMBER 19, 2015

 

1

 

12

 

 

• STORY
• PHOTOS ( 6 )

 

 

 

Poultry farmers in the Fraser Valley are on special alert this winter to the presence of avian flu and the need to observe strict biosecurity protocols.

Wild birds nesting in poultry barns, rodent infestations, improper disposal of dead birds and domestic dogs in restricted areas are among the biosecurity breaches on Fraser Valley poultry farms, freedom of information documents reveal.

Annual biosecurity audits obtained by The Vancouver Sun show that poultry farmers also failed to ensure all materials and equipment entering farms are clean and to conduct required bacteriological water quality tests in the months leading up to the outbreak last December of avian influenza.

Wild waterfowl can carry avian flu without showing signs of the disease, which thrives under the Fraser Valley’s cool, wet conditions in winter.

Poultry flocks can be infected by waterfowl feces, including on infected machinery, someone’s shoes, feed or wood shavings. Rodents and birds are capable of introducing the disease into barns on their feet and bodies.

Poultry officials acknowledge that the failure of even one farm to maintain biosecurity standards can prove costly — for farmers and taxpayers alike.

“Any chink in the armour may cause a problem,” confirmed Jim Collins, executive director of the province’s Farm Industry Review Board.

He noted that the biosecurity breaches outlined in the FOI documents show the importance of continued communications with industry “because we all get a little sloppy if we are not reminded from time to time what our obligations are.”

The federal government spent $20.7 million on the 2014 outbreak, including the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA)’s response and compensation payments to farmers.

Dwight Yochim, executive director of the BC Egg Marketing Board, said industry is constantly sending out newsletters on biosecurity. “It’s human nature to just kind of say, ‘I’ve done something before, I’ll do it again.’ And it’s the 10th time that it gets you. We try to keep it front and centre all year.”

Officials also noted that the marketing board audits show that the majority of farmers are doing a good job on biosecurity and that the extent of the avian flu outbreak in 2014 paled in comparison with the 2004 event.

“There was a big difference,” said Bill Vanderspek, executive director of the B.C. Chicken Marketing Board. “It’s a testament to the biosecurity program” throughout the poultry industry.

The 2014 avian flu hammered 11 commercial poultry farms, resulting in the slaughter of about 250,000 birds.

In comparison, 42 farms were directly hit in 2004 — the first such major event in the Fraser Valley — which ultimately resulted in the killing of more than 14 million birds from 410 farms and the loss of $300 million in economic opportunity.

Industry argues biosecurity measures are designed to reduce the disease risk as much as reasonably possible but that perfection is unattainable.

“We think of these programs as black and white,” said Ray Nickel, president of the BC Poultry Association. “But you can’t 100-per-cent guarantee that I don’t have rodents or a potential bird won’t get in. The intent of the program is to minimize risk and everyone shares in that together.”

Farms on alert

Fraser Valley poultry producers are on heightened alert after confirmation of avian flu in a wild mallard duck shot by a hunter in Abbotsford in November.

“We’re telling the growers to be even more vigilant,” said Michel Benoit, general manager of the BC Turkey Marketing Board. “Minimize contact with other farmers, definitely change clothes and wash up before going anywhere near the barns.”

The federal and provincial governments are providing $300,000 to increase surveillance, early detection, and response measures to avian flu, including specialized equipment at the Ministry of Agriculture’s Animal Health Centre in Abbotsford to diagnose sediment samples at ponds and wetlands used by wild waterfowl.

A 2013 PricewaterhouseCoopers study pegged the B.C. poultry industry at 583 farms with farm gate receipts of $569 million, based on 2011 figures. An estimated 80 per cent of poultry farms are located in the Fraser Valley, Nickel said.

Four marketing boards overseeing turkey and chicken production in B.C., including eggs, initially resisted The Sun’s request for copies of the 2014 audits, but agreed to a compromise in which the names and addresses of farms were removed from hundreds of pages of documents. The Farm Industry Review Board also emphasized the need for increased transparency in marketing board operations and decision-making.

The biosecurity checklist includes some 55 categories, ranging from paperwork requirements such as up-to-date logbooks and standard operating procedures to more critical issues designed to keep farms safe from diseases that could endanger flocks.

Marketing boards began to conduct mandatory biosecurity audits in 2006 in response to the 2004 massive outbreak.

Almost 10 per cent of the audits conducted by the BC Broiler Hatching Egg Commission (BCBHEC) at 62 farms required corrective actions. Stephanie Nelson, executive director of BCBHEC, said the most common issues involved incomplete signage, failure to conduct water tests and lack of documentation. Water tests are required even for farms on municipal water systems due to potential for problems within a water line on the farm.

The Sun culled 24 audits from more than 300 chicken farms that cited biosecurity breaches including the need to change boots when crossing a demarkation line into the bird area, unscreened access point to barns, lack of hand sanitizers, squirrel holes, improper disposal of dead birds, insufficient cleaning of fans and servicing rooms, and bird nests in barns.

‘Nasty’ rodents

Kathy Erickson, manager of field services for the BC Chicken Marketing Board, said she’s aware of at least one starling nest located in a barn loft above — but not directly within — the chicken area. The concern is for feces to find their way to the chickens, including via rodents.

Auditors with an eye for detail often notice issues that farmers do not, including holes created due to missing boards or mesh screens.

“You can get birds in any situation where you don’t have screens ...” Erickson said. “Starlings are notorious for breaking into barns through tiny holes.”

Several poultry farmers failed to keep grass cut around barns, fill in potholes and conduct other measures such as maintaining bait traps as a way to avoid rodent infestations.

“Rodents are nasty little buggers,” said Katie Lowe, operations manager of the BC Egg Marketing Board.

Benoit observed that barns represent a “warm environment with food and water” for rodents. “Our growers are trying really hard. Are they perfect? We’re talking about a virus and it’s difficult to control. It’s a big challenge.”

The BC Egg Marketing Board documented biosecurity issues at 16 of more than 130 table egg farms, including two cases where dogs were allowed into biosecurity areas such as where special boots are put on to reduce disease transfer.

“Dogs are absolutely not allowed in a restricted access zone,” Lowe insisted.

How is it transmitted?

Although an official federal report on the 2014 avian flu outbreak event won’t be released until 2016, Abed Harchaoui, senior staff veterinarian with the CFIA, told The Sun that most of the 11 farms directly affected last winter obtained the disease from wild waterfowl.

Airborne transmissions were not determined.

“We don’t have any evidence ...” Harchaoui said from Ottawa.

That naturally turns the suspicion to humans, animals, equipment and materials for bringing the disease into poultry operations — exactly the sorts of biosecurity breaches found in the audits.

“CFIA is not looking to blame any of the stakeholders,” Harchaoui said. “We are looking collectively to prevent any further outbreaks and to prevent any further spread.”

The Ministry of Agriculture’s chief veterinary officer, Jane Pritchard, said from Abbotsford that eight of the 11 cases in 2014 involved direct transfer from wild flocks into barns rather than from poultry farm to poultry farm. Airborne transmission cannot be ruled out over short distances between barns but neither can transmission by people and rodents, she said.

Pritchard added that an element of luck is involved, noting that a poultry farmer’s location may have as much to do with getting avian flu as biosecurity measures.

“We probably have many bad operators who have never had avian influenza because they are in an area of lower risk and are not exposed to a high density of migratory water fowl or are sitting on dry land,” she said.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations says it is unclear how highly pathogenic avian influenza is initially introduced into poultry flocks, although the spread between poultry facilities usually results from the movement of infected birds or contaminated people and equipment, including clothing, boots and vehicles, even the outer surface of egg shells.

“Airborne transmission of avian influenza virus from farm to farm is not likely,” the organization states.

The 2014 disease event also caused widespread economic and logistical chaos beyond the 11 farms affected, including a federal imposition of security zones that required permits for the movement of birds.

With export markets closed, the industry also had to scramble to find alternative buyers at significantly lower prices.

“You have no choice but to take the sale,” Benoit said.

Backyard chickens

There can be literally thousands of strains of avian flu, some low pathogenic, some high pathogenic, and some low path capable of becoming high path. The strains last year in the Fraser Valley did not harm humans, but other strains globally have caused flu-like symptoms and even death, especially in areas such as Asia. In Alberta last year, a woman with H5N1 avian influenza died after returning from Beijing, China.

Nickel of the BC Poultry Association added that the public wants backyard free-range chickens, but those operations pose a risk to traditional commercial poultry operations.

Organic products are a growing segment of the commercial poultry industry. A certified organic chicken is fed organic grains, receives no antibiotics even during sickness and has access to the outside. The organic share of the market has grown from 0.25 per cent to more than two per cent over six years. Due to the 2004 avian flu outbreak, even small backyard free-range operations are required to obtained permits from the marketing board.

“You want to have no breaches, you want a secure environment, but we’re going to let birds pasture outside almost on a regular basis,” Nickel said.

“It’s still not an excuse for our commercial guys to be laissez-faire about how they deal with and manage those potential risk areas.”

Pritchard confirmed the added biosecurity risks when chickens are allowed outside. “It’s very challenging to do very good rodent control and bird control if you have an open door or an open wall.”

Emily Robertson of True North Heritage Hatchery in Langley said scientific research does not support backyard flocks and rodents as serious threats to commercial production.

"The commercial poultry farmers do not want to blame their staff for lax biosecurity," she said. "They would much rather blame rats and sparrows and the organic farm next door. High path AI is a nasty disease, and I would like to see the commercial sector look in the mirror and face this threat rationally."

None of the 11 farms infected in 2014 involved free-range poultry outside of barns.

Nickel noted that industry is also working on a mandatory insurance that would provide compensation for future avian flu losses.

Biosecurity measures help minimize risk

Vic Redekop says avian flu has done more than kill millions of poultry and create havoc in the Fraser Valley during the last decade. It’s put up a barrier between the farmer and the public and helped to disconnect society from food production in the province.

“It’s really unfortunate,” Redekop said in an interview from his south Langley turkey farm. “We used to have kindergarten classes come by. They’d get to see the turkeys and baby chicks. It fostered an identity with what farming is all about, and that’s lost.”

It’s got to the point where he doesn’t like to invite anyone over to his farm — especially given a close call during the December 2014 outbreak — which started the same day on a turkey farm in Abbotsford and a broiler breeder farm in Chilliwack and eventually spread to 11 commercial farms, three of them turkey.

“It was very close to this farm, within a mile,” he said. “We become very frightened, I guess is the word.”

Redekop has been in the poultry business all his life and says that formal biosecurity protocols are an accepted part of doing business.

“Everyone is apprehensive, right? Avian flu presents a real and present danger to poultry in the Fraser Valley.”

Mandatory biosecurity measures are designed to minimize the risk of avian flu and other diseases being transported onto a poultry farm.

Redekop maintains a closed gate to prevent anyone from just driving onto the property at will and requires The Vancouver Sun’s reporter and photographer to dip their shoes into a disinfectant foot bath and to put on biosecurity suits and thin plastic booties.

Inside the barn’s anteroom — which separate the turkeys from the outside environment — The Sun is required to put on a second pair of booties while crossing a demarcation line on the floor. It’s a cumbersome process and the most difficult part of the biosecurity protocols, Redekop allows.

There may be a temptation to cut corners, say, when a farmer or employee crosses the demarcation line then realizes he’s forgotten something on the other side. “The barn entry requirements are difficult. You have to be very conscious of what you’re doing. It seems small, but it isn’t.”

The Sun reviewed 40 biosecurity audits of Fraser Valley turkey farmers from last year and found various deficiencies in 18 farms.

Beyond the demarcation line, a door opens into the barn proper and about 5,000 female turkeys 83 days old are about to head to the slaughterhouse.

“One of the reasons I’m agreeing to this (tour) is the birds are going out to market tomorrow,” Redekop said. “It becomes a moot point.”

The rectangular, climate-controlled barn — one of four on this property — is 15,000 square feet and has two large ventilation fans at one end to remove air and 50 side vents along the tops of the walls bringing in fresh air.

Dust from movement of the turkeys creates a slight haze, although the presence of The Sun news teams probably makes it worse.

The turkeys can eat and drink whenever they like and show no obvious signs of stress.

“Turkeys will tell you very quickly if they’re not happy,” Redekop said.

The barns are only five years old and in excellent condition, reducing the chance of wild birds and rodents getting inside and potentially transporting disease.

“I’ve seen more rodents on Granville Island than I have here,” Redekop allows.

This farm produces about 700,000 kilograms of turkey per year. Double that with Redekop’s second turkey farm nearby.

He concludes that poultry farmers must appreciate they receive a good, stable income due to a supply-management system governing poultry production.

“We have a certain responsibility to provide a good product and be responsible for the privilege we’ve been given.”

Ways avian flu can spread through poultry and other birds:

• Diseased birds or birds carrying disease.

• Farm animals, pets and other wildlife, vermin and insects.

• Clothing and shoes of visitors and employees moving from flock to flock.

• Contaminated feed, water, bedding and litter.

• Carcasses of dead birds.

• Contaminated farm equipment and vehicles.

• Contact with neighbouring flocks.

• Airborne particles.

Source: Canadian Food Inspection Agency

Tracking the 2014 outbreak in the Fraser Valley

Dec. 2, 2014: The Canadian Food Inspection Agency announces the presence of H5 avian flu on two farms in the Fraser Valley — a turkey farm in Abbotsford and a broiler breeder farm in Chilliwack. Tests later confirm the strain as highly-pathogenic H5N2 virus.

Dec. 3, 2014: Two additional farms that received birds from one of the original farms are placed under quarantine. Birds on these new farms also show signs of illness. All will be euthanized.

Dec. 6, 2014: The flu spreads to a fifth site, a turkey farm in Abbotsford.

Dec. 8, 2014: CFIA establishes a primary control zone bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean, on the south by the U.S. border, on the north by Highway 16, and on the east by the Alberta border. The control zone is divided into three disease control zones: infected, up to three kilometres from an infected site; restricted, up to 10 kilometres; and security, beyond 10 kilometres. Movements of captive birds and poultry products are strictly controlled and require permits.

Dec. 10, 2014: The flu is believed to have spread to nine poultry operations.

Dec. 17, 2014: Virus sequencing reveals gene segments from the high pathogenic Eurasian H5N8 virus and segments from typical North American viruses, including the N2 gene. This is the first time a Eurasian lineage highly pathogenic H5 virus has caused an outbreak of avian influenza in poultry in North America.

Feb. 7, 2015: CFIA confirms the presence of a high pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza on a non-commercial farm in Chilliwack for the first time during the outbreak in the Fraser Valley. A similar discovery was made one month earlier on a farm in Washington state.

March 9, 2015: CFIA removes the avian influenza primary control zone. Permits are no longer required for the movement of birds and bird products in B.C. Export restrictions continue.

June 3, 2015: CFIA notifies the World Organisation for Animal Health that the province is free of detectable avian flu after a three-month surveillance period.

[email protected]

 

http://www.vancouversun.com/health/biosecurity+breaches+exposed+within+fraser+valley+poultry+industry/11600882/story.html