Virus Incubators in the Fraser Valley

My good friend David Hancock, a well known biologist and conservationist specializing in birds, almost lost his entire flock of birds back in 2004. We're not talking budgies or parrots (although many of those were on the chopping block at other places not far from David's home on Zero Avenue in South Surrey) but instead are talking some fairly exotic and in some cases endangered birds that David and his staff and researchers raise on his property. These are birds like sandhill cranes, grouse, pheasants, quail and even more exotic, turocos.

So why did he almost lose his flock? Bird Flu - not in his flock of course - but in the flocks of chickens and turkeys that are housed all over the Fraser Valley.

Recently I had the pleasure of hearing David talk to David Ingram on the Around the World video show. I think you'd be interested in hearing what Hancock has to say about the, in his words, "Virus Incubators".

There really is no excuse for why these bird factories are in the Fraser Valley. They could just as easily be anywhere in British Columbia. Why are they in the Fraser Vally? Why are they where millions of migratory birds pass by? Why do the chicken-farmers dump the guano and dead carcasses out on fields where scavengers like seagulls and bald eagles can get them and distribute the potentially lethal viruses to all points of the compass?

Only the government really knows - and so far there has been no response to David's questions in this vein.