Salt Spring’s poultry community breathed a sigh of relief this week, as Canada’s lead agency on the avian flu influenza response lifted restrictions on movement of birds.
With the issuance of a revocation order Friday evening, Dec. 9, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), which had declared a large portion of the island to be a Primary Control Zone (PCZ) following discovery of the H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza in birds here last month, signalled an end to restrictions. The security zone boundary had followed a roughly 10-kilometre diameter circle, centred on Ganges — effectively most of Salt Spring Island north of Fulford. Movement controls per the Health of Animals Act had required special permits to move “birds, their products and by-products, as well as things exposed to birds” into, out of, within, or through the PCZ.
According to Inspection Canada, avian influenza viruses — such as the H5N1 virus present in Asia — may, on rare occasions, cause disease in humans; transmission to humans occurs through close contact with infected birds or heavily contaminated environments.