SASKATOON – The government overreacted when it ordered a diseased chicken flock destroyed and now it is offering inadequate compensation to cover the losses, says one of the egg producers.
The result has been unnecessary expenses for the farm, for the government and for the Saskatchewan egg industry, Sharon Vanhouwe said after Amberlea Farms of Saskatoon was offered almost $125,000 last week.
“I think there were other choices that would have been a lot more economical,” said Vanhouwe. “I think we could have managed with the disease until the end of (the chickens’) cycle.”
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Last November infectious laryngotracheitis broke out in the Amberlea flock. Infected birds choke, cough and sneeze, and often spit up blood. The 40,000 chicken flock was vaccinated and Vanhouwe said the death rate drastically dropped, but the government ordered the entire flock destroyed anyway.
The Saskatchewan Commercial Egg Producers Marketing Board called for and supported the extermination order.
“We were concerned about the whole industry,” said egg board boss Bert Harman. “The longer those birds were alive, the bigger the risk of spreading the disease to another barn.”
But Vanhouwe said she thinks simple control measures could have stopped the disease spreading from the barn, the chickens could have lived out their lives until ready for slaughter and money would have been saved.
Now the Saskatchewan government will have to cough up $95,000, the egg board almost $29,000 and the farm will be left footing the rest of what it estimates to be the $200,000 bill.
Legal expenses not covered
Vanhouwe said she is unhappy with the government compensation because she had assumed it would cover almost all of the expenses. But the government instead agreed to cover 80 percent of the value of the birds and 66 percent of other destruction, clean-up and disinfection costs. Vanhouwe said many expenses weren’t covered at all, including heavy legal expenses.
The legal costs arose because of the family ties between Sharon and her brother Jim Teichrob to Carol Teichrob, Saskatchewan’s minister of municipal government. To avoid any appearance of a conflict-of-interest, the government kept the issue at arms length, appointing an independent adviser to decide on compensation and making government officials and Amberlea owners work only through lawyers.
Harman said the farm’s family political connections had nothing to do with compensation being given by either the board or the government.
