Paul Albers disinfects his egg collection room on an almost daily basis in an effort to keep the avian flu out.
“It’s our livelihood. So basically, of course we don’t want the bird flu to come in here,” said the Huron County egg producer.
Albers is amongst hundreds of poultry farmers across Ontario bracing for the return of avian flu season. A deadly virus that’s carried by wild birds and passed onto farm raised poultry that’s wiped out over one million Ontario raised chickens and turkeys since 2022.
“The migratory birds are coming back from down south, and the risk of avian influenza right now, here in Ontario and across Canada is increasing,” said Mark Beaven, president and founder of EthoGuard.
EthoGuard is the master distributor of Prevail in Canada’s agricultural industry.
Dead birds found in Bruce County earlier this month have raised the stakes for local poultry farmers who desperately want to keep avian flu out of their barns and flocks. Many of them are using a disinfectant made in Oakville and distributed from Huron County to disinfect their barns and keep avian flu away.
“The science behind Prevail, or accelerated hydrogen peroxide, is it gives the producer the best option when it comes to cleaning and disinfection because it’s a disinfectant, but it’s also a cleaner and actually can disinfect in the presence of organic material,” explained Beaven.
Farms and agricultural facilities naturally have a lot of organic material. So, having a disinfectant that can actually work in the presence of organic material gives the producer the best possible defense against disease,” said Beaven.
In Ontario, 60 farms have had avian flu outbreaks since 2022, killing over one million birds. In the United States, 1,600 farms have had avian flu outbreaks over that same time frame, killing over 168 million birds and jacking up the price of eggs stateside.
“Our farms are smaller, more secure than they are to our neighbors to the south. And that’s why we haven’t seen, I believe the number of cases. Plus, Prevail is used on a lot of poultry barns, more poultry barns here in Canada than in the States,” said Beaven.
Along with disinfection and strict biosecurity measures on Albers’ poultry farm near Brussels, they’re also beta-testing My Biosecurity App, using AI to double down on avian flu protection.
“It’s able to actually predict or identify issues before they become a problem. So, we’re pretty excited about that,” said Beaven.
“Basically, we’re just trying to make it a little bit easier, more efficient and beneficial for us, as farmers,” said Albers.
Protecting his 45,000 hens and their daily production of 44,000 eggs, means Albers is willing to try and do anything to keep avian flu from entering his Huron County farm. His livelihood depends upon it.
