The fallout surrounding a Saskatchewan chicken farm with confirmed cases of avian flu should not be as devastating as a B.C. outbreak two years ago that caused the destruction of 17 million chickens, according to health officials.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) said Thursday that the infected farm's relative isolation should allow for an effective quarantine.
"Certainly in B.C. there's a very concentrated area with large numbers of birds. In Saskatchewan, we have a smaller industry and it's spread over a larger geographic area, so we don't have the same density of poultry," Dr. Sandra Stephens, veterinary program specialist with the CFIA, told Â鶹´«Ã½net.
The recent Saskatchewan quarantine and the British Columbia outbreak were caused by the highly pathogenic H7N3 flu strain.
H7N3 is highly contagious in poultry, but is not seen as a risk to humans. In the outbreak two years ago, two poultry workers became infected and suffered briefly from flu-like symptoms.
It is not the same as the strain circulating in Asia, Africa and Europe -- H5N1 -- which has been associated with human deaths.
"This is an H7 subtype so it's not closely related at all to that H5 subtype," Stephens said.
But Stephens added: "we do recognize that there is potential with avian influenza viruses to have some capacity to produce illness in people. Normally those conditions would be very mild."
The chicken farm is about 40 kilometres north of Regina and has been quarantined since Sunday. The birds on the farm were not destined for immediate slaughter and were not producing eggs for human consumption. Stephens says the CFIA is taking decisive disease control measures on the Saskatchewan farm. All birds on the infected farm will be destroyed.
The CFIA will then oversee the cleaning and disinfection of the barns, vehicles, equipment and tools, to eliminate any infectious material that may remain.
Normally, birds on any commercial operations within one kilometre of an infected farm would also be destroyed, but it appears that there are no other bird farms in the immediate area. Any poultry operations within 10 kilometres of the infected farm will be closely monitored for signs of illness.
"Certainly we will continue to do surveillance on poultry in close proximity, or any contacts that are considered to be at risk for at least the next three weeks," Stephens said.
Gerry Ritz, the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, said the agency has a great deal of expertise and experience in handling situations like this.
"I have every confidence in their ability to take the necessary measures to appropriately resolve this situation as expeditiously as possible," said Ritz.
But while officials insist the food supply is safe, the U.S. has closed its border to Saskatchewan poultry for now.
While it considers chicken from other provinces still safe, that could change if more farms are quarantined.
The source of the infection is not known and the CFIA says it may be difficult to confirm the source. They say the possibility that wild waterfowl, which are natural hosts for avian flu, may have brought the infection "cannot be discounted."
The agency also commended "the responsible actions of the owner, who reported signs of illness at the earliest possible moment."
Chicken farmers are forced to follow strict biosecurity guidelines. The birds aren't allowed to go outside and equipment brought inside is disinfected.
Officials will spend the next days disinfecting the property, and the next weeks determining the cause.
Unlike B.C. farmers, prairie producers usually have significantly more space between them and their neighbours, making cross contamination less likely, said Karen Armstrong of the Manitoba Chicken Producers.
With a report from CTV's Mark Rogstad and files from The Canadian Press
