Reading Time: 2 minutes No one wants an infectious animal disease outbreak on their farm — but every producer should be ready for one, says an expert on biocontainment plans. “When we get into crisis mode, we tend to forget the important steps and communications pieces that need to be there — by having it all documented ahead of […] Read more
Biocontainment plan can be a lifesaver during a disease outbreak
The to-do list is a long one in a crisis — and it’s better to have it all set down in writing
Schoepp: What’s a more important sector: oil or agriculture?
Take a comprehensive look at the facts and the answer is obvious
Reading Time: 4 minutes As we drove through the blueberry fields and cranberry bogs in southern B.C., I thought of economic generators. What, I wondered, was a bigger sustainable economic generator to our nation: oil or agriculture? An environmental scan of an industry must include the long-term effects on people and the planet. The structures that we employ for […] Read more
Think a big new West Coast terminal is good news? Think again
Expanding storage capacity just helps the big grain companies depress the price paid to farmers
Reading Time: 2 minutes G3 has announced it may build a new grain terminal at the West Lynn terminal on the North Shore of Vancouver’s Burrard Inlet. G3 is the joint venture of U.S.-based multinational grain company, Bunge Ltd., and the Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Co., owned by the Saudi government. It was given the assets of the […] Read more
CFIA declares B.C. avian flu-free
With three months’ distance from the cleanup at the last of the province’s infected poultry barns, the federal government has declared British Columbia free of highly pathogenic avian flu. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Monday it had notified the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) that B.C. is considered free of notifiable avian influenza, […] Read more
B.C. resident positive for H7N9 avian flu
Vancouver | Reuters –– A British Columbia resident has tested positive for the H7N9 avian flu virus in the first documented case of the infection in a human in North America, the federal government said Monday. The person had returned to Canada from China and is recovering from the illness in self-isolation, the Public Health […] Read more
Avian flu arrives on more B.C. poultry farms
Federal officials monitoring avian flu outbreaks in British Columbia’s Fraser Valley aren’t surprised to have confirmed another three, maybe four, infected properties. According to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency in a statement Wednesday, two more farms — both close to the initial pair of farms confirmed last week with high-pathogenicity H5N2 avian flu — have […] Read more
Two Fraser Valley farms quarantined with H5 avian flu
Federal officials have quarantined a turkey farm and a broiler breeder farm in British Columbia’s Fraser Valley after both were confirmed with outbreaks of an H5 strain of avian influenza. The quarantines, announced Tuesday, follow death losses of “over half” of the 11,000 birds at the turkey farm near Abbotsford, and of about 1,000 of […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
