A Surrey city councillor whose turkey farm was smote by avian flu last winter is imploring residents not to touch or go near dead birds and to immediately report if they find one by calling 1-866-431-BIRD (2473).
"If you see sick or dead birds don't approach them, don't touch them," Coun. Mike Bose warned.
"It is so important that any dead bird or any sick bird is reported to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency 鈥� it's the only way we can track and monitor how this disease is travelling through the province. This is becoming a massive economic drain on our country as it spreads, there's very little we can do about it, it travels with the wild bird so when you see sick or dead birds please don't touch them and report them."
Bose鈥檚 Medomist turkey
He is part owner and manager of the farm, at 5948 156 St. The farm had two flocks, one of them being just a week from market. Bose likened the experience to "life going to hell."
Last November, roughly a week before the farm was infected, a big windstorm with heavy rain hit Surrey. Water pooled in the fields, he recalled, "which quickly filled up with wild birds, ducks and geese, and that wind was blowing through the barn. Wind blowing across wild birds into a barn, not a good combination."
The financial hit, he recalled, was "huge" with "a lot of zeroes in it, a lot of zeroes."
Sadly avian flu is back in the news. On Nov. 13 Fraser Health issued a letter to the Surrey school district containing safety tips for families after a teenager landed in B.C. Children's Hospital in critical condition with the H5N1 virus.
It was the first known case in B.C. and second in Canada.
鈥� with a file from Sobia Moman
