Agriculture Minister Bob Speller told reporters all poultry on about 600 commercial farms and small domestic farms in western Canada would be killed. Although several farm workers have contracted the disease, H7 avian flu found in Canada is considered far less dangerous to humans than a strain that killed 23 people in Asia this year. The first case of the H7 avian flu was detected on February in a farm in Abbotsford, near Vancouver. The European Union last week lifted a blanket ban on poultry imports from Canada and the United States, leaving restrictions only on fowl from affected areas.
