Avian influenza continues to ravage poultry flocks across Canada with Alberta as the hot spot.
The province is inching toward the one million mark with 900,000 birds in commercial and small flocks affected.
That’s more than double the next highest provincial total of 425,000 in Ontario.
Both provinces record 23 farms as having confirmed cases of this year’s highly contagious and deadly strain of bird flu.
Saskatchewan registers seven farms with more than 100,000 birds impacted, while Manitoba records one commercial operation as having cases.
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British Columbia has five affected farms. Quebec shows 225,000 birds affected.
Alberta has 19 primary control zones restricting movement of birds, their byproducts and materials from farms identified as having avian influenza.
Those zones have spread from the Edmonton-Calgary corridor to areas around Vegreville, Wainwright and operations near Lethbridge, Cardston and Milk River.
B.C. has also established a control zone in the Lower Mainland after the first few weeks of this year’s outbreak were confined to farms in the Interior.
While avian influenza continues to spread in Canada, recent numbers from the United States Department of Agriculture show a reduction in reported cases.
As of May 7, more than 37 million birds in the U.S. have been affected in 33 states spread across 171 commercial flocks.
But the spread of infection appears to be slowing with more than 20 million affected birds reported in March to almost 15 million in April to slightly less than 300,000 during the first week of May.
Canadian egg and chicken producer associations do not anticipate supply problems connected to the outbreak.
