With 8.7M birds dead, B.C. farmers assess avian flu toll, and worry about what's next

There is a window of relief for British Columbia farmers from the devastating waves of avian flu, leaving them to assess the toll of outbreaks spanning more than three years that saw millions of birds culled at hundreds of farms.

Farmers and scientists also worry what the next migration of wild birds will bring this year.

Some farmers have moved their operations outside British Columbia's Fraser Valley or exited the industry altogether since the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian flu began circulating, said farmer Ray Nickel.

Nickel, who operates a farm in Abbotsford in the Fraser Valley, was forced to cull 60,000 chickens in the fall of 2022 due to the disease. He said his flock of about 9,000 turkeys on another farm was also euthanized in 2023.

"It's just daunting, and the uncertainty about what's happening around you does weigh on you," Nickel said of the virus. 

"We've had reoccurring events, particularly in the fall, and the amount of anxiety and stress that goes in for producers when this is going on is significant."

"Infection protocols" have been imposed on B.C. flocks 239 times since the first case was detected in the province in April 2022, but only six premises are currently infected as of April 1, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).

More than 8.7 million commercial and backyard birds have been culled in the province, more than half the national toll of 14.5 million. 

The agency said in January that the worldwide scale of the avian flu is "unprecedented and continues to have significant impacts on Canada's poultry industry." But there have been no new infections reported in B.C. since Jan. 11.

Nickel, who also serves as director of the B.C. Chicken Marketing Board, said farmers are feeling "relieved" at the moment, but there's an underlying concern about the virus persisting.

Farmers are diligent about safety measures, but researchers say it is currently impossible to know exactly how a virus is transmitted to flocks.

Troy Bourque, a veterinary operations specialist for the CFIA, said Canada first detected the highly pathogenic avian flu in 2021 and had since gone through six waves of outbreaks. 

"They are both in the spring and fall during migration season. Over the last couple of years, particularly in B.C., we have seen larger outbreaks in the fall rather than the spring," he said, noting the Fraser Valley had been hit hard.

Bourque, the planning chief for avian influenza outbreak response, said it's too soon to say how this year's spring migration will impact poultry flocks.