The chair of the Manitoba Turkey Producers says there has been excellent cooperation and assistance from both the provincial and federal governments in the ongoing H5N2 avian influenza investigation.

The virus was discovered in an RM of Rockwood turkey breeding operation in late November.

"Right now, I want to say that we've received excellent cooperation and assistance, both from the province and the federal people," says Bill Uruski, MTP chair. "We will sit down once the smoke has cleared, once everything has been cleaned, disinfected and and everything is ready to be put into production again. We will then be doing a post-analysis, but at this point in time, we can only say with utmost surety that as many steps as we could have envisaged in the investigation process have been taken."

He says producers have also learned from the experience.

"They have learned you can never be too careful in terms of how you deal with your own birds and the environment around them to try and prevent outbreaks such as this," he says.

~ Thursday, December 16, 2010 ~