Reading Time: 2 minutes The quarantine has been lifted at the last of the 13 farms in British Columbia’s Fraser Valley known to have been infected with highly-pathogenic avian flu. The farm, a 53,000-bird table egg layer operation at Langley, B.C., was confirmed Dec. 13 with high-path H5N2 avian flu. At the end of a 21-day waiting period following […] Read more
Last of avian flu quarantines lifted in B.C.
SW Ont. pork plant to morph into turkey processor
Reading Time: 2 minutes The vacant pork slaughterhouse formerly known as Great Lakes Specialty Meats is now expected to restart as a turkey processing plant by year’s end. Meat processor Sofina Foods bought the 78,000-square foot plant and property at Mitchell, Ont., about 60 km west of Kitchener, for $4.77 million last September, after Great Lakes entered receivership in June. […] Read more
Be a better farm ambassador
More farmers are developing strategies that actually do connect with consumers
Reading Time: 5 minutes In her other life as a school board trustee, Okanagan Valley chicken farmer Christina Coers sees the value of education. It’s a mindset that she brought with her when she and her husband Steven became chicken farmers under the new-entrant program of the British Columbia chicken-marketing board a year ago. Coers, 46, didn’t grow up […] Read more
U.S. developing bird flu vaccine, no distribution plans yet
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — The U.S. government is developing a vaccine to protect poultry from new strains of avian flu that have recently killed birds from Arkansas to Washington state. Within two months, scientists at a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) research lab in Georgia will test the vaccine on chickens to see how well […] Read more
All but one avian flu quarantine lifted in B.C.
Reading Time: < 1 minute A table egg layer operation near Langley is now the only farm still under quarantine for avian flu in British Columbia. All 13 properties in B.C.’s Fraser Valley that had been quarantined for highly-pathogenic H5N2 or H5N1 avian flu since the beginning of December have since been culled of birds, cleaned and disinfected. A subsequent […] Read more
U.S. reports low-path H7N3 bird flu in California
Reading Time: < 1 minute Paris | Reuters –– The United States has reported a mild form of bird flu on a turkey farm in California, the World Organisztion for Animal Health (OIE) said Wednesday, the latest in a series of outbreaks to hit the U.S. poultry industry in recent months. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a report […] Read more
Wayne Farms files for IPO
Reading Time: < 1 minute Reuters — Wayne Farms, the sixth-largest poultry producer in the U.S., has filed with U.S. regulators in an initial public offering of common stock. Wayne Farms is a subsidiary of Continental Grain, one of the largest privately-held corporations in the U.S. Citigroup, J.P. Morgan and BMO Capital Markets are underwriting the IPO, Wayne told the […] Read more
U.S. may impose tougher curbs to contain bird flu in Arkansas
Reading Time: 3 minutes Chicago | Reuters — U.S. authorities are considering imposing tougher restrictions in Arkansas to contain a virulent strain of avian flu in the heart of the country’s poultry region in a bid to minimize international trade disruptions and contain the virus. The H5N2 flu discovered in Arkansas last week is the state’s first case of […] Read more
Canada blocking poultry from Kansas, Arkansas
Reading Time: 3 minutes Canada has expanded its restrictions on imports of live poultry, uncooked poultry products and eggs to include those from Kansas and Arkansas, as avian flu has now appeared in birds in both states. The Kansas cases of highly-pathogenic (“high-path”) H5N2 avian flu are in a backyard chicken and duck flock in Leavenworth County, on the state’s […] Read more
U.S. bird experts mystified by Midwest avian flu spread
Reading Time: 3 minutes Chicago | Reuters — A virulent strain of avian flu that has killed turkeys in the heart of the nation’s poultry region has been found through molecular testing to be nearly identical to viruses isolated in migratory ducks. But some wildlife experts are skeptical of suggestions that wild birds are responsible for spreading the H5N2 […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
