{"id":266923,"date":"2025-11-07T03:36:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T03:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/266923\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T03:36:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T03:36:13","slug":"18-poultry-farms-in-b-c-dealing-with-avian-flu-outbreaks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/266923\/","title":{"rendered":"18 poultry farms in B.C. dealing with avian flu outbreaks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There are now 18 poultry farms in B.C. that are dealing with outbreaks of avian flu.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/70c8fc80.png\" alt=\"\" style=\"position:absolute;width:1px;height:1px\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\"\/><\/p>\n<p>This includes more than a dozen large poultry farms in Chilliwack, Abbotsford and Langley.<\/p>\n<p>Shawn Hall, director of the B.C. Poultry Industry Emergency Operations Centre, told Global News that it is a concerning time for poultry farmers in the province.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe know that avian influenza is being spread by migrating waterfowl, so ducks and geese and swans that are returning from their summer grounds up in the Arctic and unfortunately carrying avian influenza with them along flyways and we\u2019re on one of those,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Hall said they started seeing the first infections a few weeks ago and now there are 18 infected flocks. He said some are backyard fowl but most are big commercial operations.<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe moved to red biosecurity level a while ago when we started seeing risk factors come in, so, with red biosecurity level, which is the highest level of biosecurity poultry farmers have in B.C., farmers have to start taking additional measures and they\u2019re onerous, but they\u2019re important,\u201d Hall added.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"170\" height=\"225\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/healthiq.jpg\" alt=\"Receive the latest medical news and health information delivered to you every Sunday.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tGet weekly health news<\/p>\n<p>Receive the latest medical news and health information delivered to you every Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>These measures include farm gates being closed and locked, with only essential visitors allowed onto the farm.<\/p>\n<p>All vehicles have to be disinfected before they come onto the farm, they have to wear PPE, farmers have to change all their clothes before going into a barn and must wear coveralls, masks, gloves and boots that are only worn in the barn.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-video__image\" alt=\"Click to play video: 'B.C. teen with avian flu discharged from hospital after 2 months'\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/WEB_AVIAN.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\"   data-\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t0:32<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tB.C. teen with avian flu discharged from hospital after 2 months\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\tTrending Now\n\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11514061\/louvre-heist-suspect-social-media-abdoulaye-n\/\" class=\"c-posts__inner\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-posts__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1762486573_248_618a5c99d94ef1ce42562b66a155b4ccee2f0f813e76081914a0bb58fadf4fd0.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"336\" height=\"224\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\tLouvre heist suspect revealed to be French social media star: reports\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11514729\/federal-budget-carney-government-first-confidence-votes\/\" class=\"c-posts__inner\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-posts__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/f71255d9dd25fe693053a16aad7d0c7f6cdd392b987caba669a367341d132091.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"336\" height=\"224\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\tCarney government survives first confidence vote over budget\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo farmer wants to have avian influenza in their operation,\u201d Hall said. \u201cIt\u2019s devastating. This is their livelihood; they work with these animals every day.<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo have to cull that flock is difficult emotionally. It\u2019s difficult financially. So we are doing everything that we can really to minimize that risk.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hall said last year there were 81 infected farms in the province and this year is on track to reach the same amount.<\/p>\n<p>It is hard on local farmers, he added, but residents shouldn\u2019t worry about food safety.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s about 600 poultry farms here in B.C., small family farms, and they\u2019re really committed to providing food for their neighbours across British Columbia,\u201d Hall said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd so this is not a food safety issue. Quite appropriately, Canada has some of the most stringent food safety standards anywhere in the world. Sick animals simply don\u2019t enter the food supply. And even if you were to consume a bird with a virus of some sort, cooking it kills that virus. So as long as you\u2019re properly cooking your poultry, you don\u2019t have anything to worry about.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t&amp;copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are now 18 poultry farms in B.C. that are dealing with outbreaks of avian flu. This includes&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[122946,7394,49,48,84],"class_list":{"0":"post-266923","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-avian-bird-flu","9":"tag-avian-flu","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-health"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}