Amid warnings that a mass poultry slaughter in B.C. will cause shortages and higher prices, representatives from the industry are to meet in Ottawa on Tuesday to discuss how best to fill the gap.
The federal government announced Monday that 19-million chickens, ducks, geese and turkeys will be killed to prevent the spread of H7 avian influenza in British Columbia's Fraser Valley, home of more than 80 per cent of the province's poultry industry.
Federal Agriculture Minister Bob Speller calls the disease is "very serious and highly contagious" and said Monday that containing the virus requires "much more aggressive" action.
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The slaughter — which will eradicate all commercial poultry in a 6,500-square-kilometre area — will take at least six to eight weeks, followed by a three-week decontamination period. Other estimates are that the industry will be put on hold for up to six months.
B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell says that plans for a compensation package are under way.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Paul Martin suggested that his government would move quickly to help out farmers hurt by the slaughter, which he called "a great tragedy."
"I would expect, in the not-to-distant future, that Bob Speller will be making an announcement [about compensation]," he told reporters in Barrie, Ont. "We're all examining now exactly what the situation is."
The unprecedented scale of the slaughter — which affects hundreds of farms and could spark thousands of layoffs — is sparked fears that this particular strain of bird flu could spread to other provinces or mutate into a form more harmful to humans. The H7 variant of avian influenza is considered much less risky than the H5 form that killed several dozen people in Asia last year, but scientists are worried that its danger could grow.
The World Health Organization has raised Canada's "pandemic preparedness level" to put it on a level with Asia.
