USDA reduces import restrictions on British Columbia poultry

USDA reduces import restrictions on British Columbia poultry    The U.S. Department of Agriculture has reduced import restrictions originally placed on poultry from Canada’s British Columbia on Nov. 19 after the detection of a strain of avian influenza in commercial ducks.
   The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has since confirmed that the virus is a minimal risk to human health. The agency has also taken an appropriate “eradication measures,” said John Clifford, chief veterinary officer for USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, in a statement Monday.
   USDA has modified the quarantine area in British Columbia for poultry imports to a five-kilometer zone within the province.