Up to 60,000 young turkeys at a Fraser Valley farm will be killed as early as Monday after a number of them were found to be sick with the contagious H5 avian influenza.
The farm, near Abbotsford, was quarantined after birds were found with respiratory problems. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said the farm had biosecurity measures in place to keep their stock healthy and are not sure how the turkeys became sick.
Other farms in a three-kilometre radius are also quarantined and will remain so for three weeks as a precaution. So far, those birds appear to be healthy.
The CFIA say this is the third avian flu outbreak in the region since 2004.
In 2005, the Fraser Valley suffered an outbreak of H5N2 avian influenza.
In Feb. 2004, 17 million birds were slaughtered in the Fraser Valley following an outbreak of H7N3, a different strain of avian influenza.
