Reading Time: 3 minutes Poultry farmers in Ontario are being warned to keep biosecurity top of mind as wild birds get ready to fly south this fall. “With the fall weather quickly approaching, resulting in colder temperatures and wild bird migrations, the threat of re-emergence of (highly pathogenic avian influenza) is real,” the Feather Board Command Centre, the emergency […] Read more

Avian flu risk higher with fall migrations

McDonald’s en route to ‘cage-free’ eggs in Canada, U.S.
Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters/Staff –– McDonald’s Corp. said all eggs it uses in its 16,000 restaurants in Canada and the U.S. will, within the next 10 years, come from chickens not confined to cages. The decision to source “cage-free” eggs follows the company’s announcement in March that it would stop using chicken raised with certain kinds of antibiotics […] Read more

CFIA clears more states for cross-border poultry traffic
Reading Time: 2 minutes Travellers entering Canada from the U.S. may now bring in uncooked poultry products, live poultry and eggs from seven of the 15 states that have had outbreaks of avian flu since December. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) on Tuesday confirmed it now considers the states of Washington, Idaho, California and Oregon free of highly […] Read more

Canada lifts bans on three states’ poultry, eggs
Reading Time: 2 minutes Travellers entering Canada from the U.S. can now bring in uncooked poultry products and eggs from Indiana, Montana and/or Arkansas. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) during August declared each of those three states free of highly pathogenic (“high-path”) avian flu, following discoveries of infected poultry in those states this spring. Poultry from Indiana had […] Read more

Japan lifts block on B.C. poultry
Reading Time: < 1 minute Tokyo | Reuters –– Japan’s farm ministry on Friday partially lifted a ban on imports of live poultry and poultry meat from Canada and the U.S. following an outbreak of bird flu. Imports from British Columbia and from eight U.S. states — Oregon, Washington, Idaho, California, Kansas, Arkansas, Montana and Indiana — will resume after […] Read more

U.S. ends avian flu-related limits on Ont. poultry
Reading Time: < 1 minute Reuters — The U.S. Agriculture Department on Tuesday lifted restrictions on imports of poultry and poultry products from Ontario in the latest sign the farm sector is starting to recover from a severe outbreak of bird flu. USDA limited imports from Ontario in April after a highly pathogenic (“high-path”) strain of H5N2 avian flu was […] Read more

USDA moves to build vaccine stockpile for bird flu return
Reading Time: < 1 minute Chicago | Reuters — The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Tuesday it has put out a request for proposals to help the nation’s veterinarians have access to bird flu vaccines for poultry this fall, in preparation for the potential return of the fast-spreading avian influenza virus. The agency’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) […] Read more

Avian flu controls lifted in 10 U.S. states
Reading Time: 2 minutes U.S. animal health officials have closed the books for now on avian influenza infections in 10 states, with five others remaining. In its latest report to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) last week, the U.S. federal Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) said all control areas for avian flu have been released […] Read more

Last of Ontario’s avian flu quarantines ends
Reading Time: 2 minutes Movement of birds and bird products in, through and out of southwestern Ontario’s Oxford and Waterloo counties is no longer subject to federal quarantine. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency announced Wednesday it has removed its second and final avian influenza control zone, which has been in place since April 21 and covered portions of both […] Read more

‘Noah’s Ark’ rescue mission for endangered poultry
Rare breed hatchery sends chicks as far away as Brazil
Reading Time: 3 minutes Reuters — Less than 24 hours after a deadly infection of bird flu was confirmed at a turkey farm north of Des Moines, Iowa, Bud Wood packed about 3,500 rare baby chicks into boxes and put them in the back of a truck. With the delicate birds just hours old, the president of Murray McMurray […] Read more