Reading Time: < 1 minute The avian flu that swept a broiler breeder chicken operation in southwestern Ontario’s Oxford County has been confirmed as highly pathogenic H5N2. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) said Sunday its lab tests in Winnipeg have confirmed the virus’ pathogenicity and subtype. The farm, southwest of Kitchener, was quarantined Saturday after preliminary tests confirmed a […] Read more
Ont. chicken farm’s avian flu confirmed as high-path H5N2
SW Ont. broiler farm quarantined with avian flu
Reading Time: 2 minutes A second poultry farm in southwestern Ontario’s Oxford County is now under federal quarantine with what tests show to be avian flu. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Saturday it had placed the farm — a broiler breeder chicken operation west of Ayr, Ont., south of Kitchener — under quarantine after preliminary tests Friday at […] Read more
Zone coverage set up around SW Ont. avian flu site
Reading Time: 3 minutes The only farm in Canada now in the midst of an avian flu cleanup is the centre of a new control zone, meant to limit the flu’s spread and keep Canada’s trading partners at ease. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) on Sunday announced it has set up an avian flu control zone, which so […] Read more
Ont. turkey farm’s avian flu confirmed as H5N2
Reading Time: 3 minutes A quarantined southwestern Ontario turkey farm has been confirmed with the same strain of highly pathogenic H5N2 avian flu seen on farms in British Columbia and several U.S. states. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Wednesday that samples tested at its National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease in Winnipeg have confirmed the virus’ subtype and […] Read more
Canada blocking poultry from Montana, South Dakota
Reading Time: 2 minutes Canada is blocking cross-border shopping for raw poultry, eggs and live birds from another border state, after H5N2 avian flu was confirmed in central Montana on Friday. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) on Friday expanded restrictions that block travellers to Canada from H5N2-positive states from bringing in live birds, hatching eggs, eggs, yolks, egg […] Read more
CFIA defends meat inspection staffing, service levels
Reading Time: 2 minutes Shifts in federal meat inspection staffing levels and work priorities are the result of a “risk-based, outcome-based” approach to food safety, not cuts, Canadian Food Inspection Agency brass say. CFIA was responding this week to allegations by its inspectors’ union, the Public Service Alliance of Canada’s (PSAC) Agriculture Union, that the agency is “quietly unravelling” […] Read more
Canada reducing number of meat inspections, union says
Reading Time: 2 minutes Winnipeg | Reuters –– The Canadian government, under pressure to eliminate its budget deficit, has reduced the frequency of inspections at certain Alberta meat-packing plants and plans to cut spending on food safety, the food inspectors’ union said on Tuesday. The cutbacks follow two major meat recalls over foodborne illness in recent years. Ottawa had […] Read more
Health Canada clears Canadian firm’s ‘non-browning’ apples
Reading Time: 2 minutes A Canadian company’s genetically modified “non-browning” apples have picked up federal approval for commercial sale after review from Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. The Arctic apple, developed by Okanagan Specialty Fruits and submitted for federal approval in 2011, “is safe for consumption, still has all its nutritional value and therefore does not […] 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
China to block Canadian beef as BSE probe continues
Reading Time: 2 minutes China has set up “temporary trade restrictions” on Canadian beef and beef products in the wake of Canada’s first case of BSE in a domestic cow since 2011, federal officials report. Born in 2009 and confirmed with BSE Feb. 11, the latest case — Canada’s 19th since its first such finding in 2003 — has […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
