Avian flu less of a threat here, says Alberta chicken producer

By Tim Gardner

  Red Deer Advocate 2004 
 
 
 

Alberta’s less intensive chicken farm operations and a drier climate will likely protect it from British Columbia’s avian flu, says an Alberta chicken farmer.

Ron Hamilton, who runs a free range organic chicken farm northwest of Camrose, said Alberta has nowhere near the vast concentration of chicken barns that B.C. has in its lower Fraser Valley, which makes it more difficult for the disease to spread.

It also doesn’t have B.C.’s more humid climate, which makes it easier for viruses to thrive.

Hamilton also said on Tuesday that because he’s an organic chicken farmer, it’s even harder for a disease like the avian flu to spread onto his farm. His chickens are more exposed to sunlight (a natural disinfectant) and fresh air than chickens in more typical intensive chicken operations.

But if the disease ever does spread into Alberta, it will be because humans will introduce the virus to a farm, Hamilton said. That’s why it’s important for all Alberta chicken farmers to get involved in the Alberta Chicken Producers’ On-Farm Safety Program, which introduces common-sense bio-security measures to keep disease out.

Small chicken producers should also become better educated about bio-security.

Hamilton said that Alberta’s winters are an added deterrent to the spread of avian flu because unlike B.C., the cold tends to cleanse the soil and the environment. Hamilton was interviewed after speaking about his farm and his efforts to prevent the spread of avian flu to the annual general meeting of the Institute of Agrologists at Red Deer’s north Holiday Inn.
     
He also said by feeding his 25,000 chickens a high-end diet, full of vitamins and minerals, his birds are healthier than many chickens in mass production facilities.

Hamilton raises his chickens in movable outdoor pens that hold 425 birds, which are moved every two days so they can eat fresh grass. That prevents them from living in their own manure, a prime breeding ground for avian flu virus.

Chickens raised inside mass production barns are limited to on spot, one-half-square-foot in size. They remain there for six weeks until fully grown and ready for market.

“Producers don’t even clean the manure out of their barns until the flocks stop,” Hamilton said. “After six weeks, then they go in and clean it up.”

But probably the best way to keep the avian flu out of chicken farms is to follow the On-Farm Food Safety Program.

Under the program, Hamilton keeps a 50-foot area around his barn and pens free from debris. He also cleans up spilled feed and limits ponds on his property to one dugout, to keep wild waterfowl away. Waterfowl are a prime source of avian flu.

Only people who work on the farm are allowed into the barn or the pens. Hamilton treats and filters all water for his chickens, practises strict rodent control, keeps a special pair of boots inside the barn for his own use and is even considering buying fish netting to put over his outdoor pens to keep wild birds out.

B.C.’s avian flu has forced the closure of 25 farms. About 19 million birds must be slaughtered.