BC’s Poultry Association doesn’t want you to change your festive dinner plans in the face of the avian flu scare.
President Ray Nickel wants to make it clear that this issue concerns animal health, not human health.
“But this crisis is a very real and present danger for our poultry flocks, because it’s very virulent and thoroughly reported disease, so there’s mandates that have to be followed when you get this kind of outbreak,” he says.
assures that poultry is still safe to eat and the virus can’t even be transmitted that way.
“There’s no consumer concern that needs to be felt by people buying and purchasing poultry, especially this time of year,” he says. “There has been concern over there not being enough turkeys, chickens, eggs, that sort of thing, but we do not have any shortages, that has been managed.”
A national poll conducted by the industry shows that 92% of BC residents plan on eating the same amount of poultry and eggs that they did before the outbreak.
Nickel says those results shows that people are not concerned about avian flu affecting their food supply.
“I think people, from the survey, do feel that farmers are competent in dealing with this in attempting to get back-to-business as soon as they can,” he says. “I was encouraged by the survey, I thought it was a good news story, a good result.”
The avian flu virus has infected 11 sites in the Fraser Valley this month, with the effects felt as far as Washington state, forcing euthanasia for nearly 250,000 birds.
(Photo courtesy the Canadian Press)
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