Oxford County Handled H5 Outbreak Well

Wednesday, 22 July 2015 07:21

Thanks to the strict biosecurity measures and the diligent work of Oxford County farmers, the avian flu may soon be officially out of the area.

Slowly but surely things are starting to get back to normal for poultry producers in Oxford County.

On Monday the first H-5 control zone was lifted after three months of tight restrictions and regulations for about 29 local farms in the 10 km radius. Another 25 farms remain under the quarantine which should be lifted next Wednesday. Incident Commander with the Featherboard Command Centre Dr. Tom Baker tells Heart FM the farms under quarantine are going through strict regulations. "A lot of extra work for farmers - Obviously they have had to change their biosecurity, which has always been very strict, had to be stepped up to an even higher level of security to make sure their farms didn't get infected."

Baker says the farms will still be able to conduct their business and producers were still able to sell their chickens and turkeys in the quarantine zones. He notes all of the poultry farmers suffered during the ordeal and it was really stressful in the early days where people were worried who would be next. "I think a feeling of fear and dread of you know who's next, especially in the early days when it wasn't clear how far this virus had spread. Still don't know to this day what introduced this new virus; a lot of people think it was migratory birds, but really it is a lot of unknowns and lot of uncertainty for farmers."

Baker says everyone came together to make sure the virus did not spread and only 3 farms were impacted directly form the H-5, which is amazing because H-5 spread quickly when it happened in the United States where they had an epidemic. "It's been a lot of work, a lot of extra work, but the good news is other than the three impacted farms, this disease did not spread - very different story than in the United States where they had an epidemic, so we are pleased about that."