The current outbreak of Avian flu in BC could lead to a shortage of turkeys this Christmas.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says a total of 20 farms in BC are currently infected.

Most of them are in the Fraser Valley, but also Vancouver Island and in the interior.

The federal agency isn’t saying how many domestic birds are affected by the current spike, but the process of destroying birds is underway.

Among the farms affected are hatching egg operations and turkey farms.

Ray Nickel with BC’s poultry industry emergency operations says turkeys are seemingly more susceptible to the H5N1 strain of bird flu that’s affected so many provinces this year, including Alberta.

BC’s agriculture minister, Lana Popham said this week, this year’s been more difficult when it comes to bird flu in that this particular strain isn’t behaving like previous variants.

It was back in 2004 that more than 17 million birds in BC had to be culled following a similar outbreak.

Alberta ranks as the province that has had the most commercial poultry flocks affected at 38.

The total number of birds lost in Alberta this year has been estimated at over 1.3 million.

Saskatchewan has also been affected by bird flu, with banning of movement of any poultry this fall.
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