The second wave of bird flu that reached Quebec could push the price of Christmas turkeys up, as it did in western Canada during Thanksgiving.
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“We believe the second wave could affect poultry prices for the upcoming holidays,” says Sylvain Charlebois, professor and director of the Agro-Food Analytical Sciences Laboratory at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia.
He estimates that the price of turkeys increased by 20% in Alberta and British Columbia for Thanksgiving this year, compared to 16% in the rest of the country, in part due to the H5N1 virus, which mainly affected those provinces this year. .
The virus is now reemerging in Quebec, where a case was confirmed last week at a small poultry farm in the Saint-Jacques-Le-Mineur region of Montérégie.
An outbreak is also suspected on a farm in the Drummondville region, points out Quebec poultry farmer president Pierre-Luc Leblanc.
Courtesy photo
Sylvain Charlebois, teacher
Severe rules
New outbreaks could have a financial impact for the province’s chicken and turkey producers, worries Leblanc.
“When a farm is concerned, it is not possible to have new bird entrances in an area of three kilometers. It could leave the farms without production and have a tremendous monetary impact on the ranchers, “he explains.
Remember that the first wave of avian flu devastated the spring, particularly in Saint-Gabriel de Valcartier, where 90,000 turkeys had to be euthanized.
You pay
Eventually, the bill goes to consumers, says Sylvain Charlebois.
“There are losses and consequently there is a price adjustment. The quota system ensures that producers are well protected, ”he explains.
“If we fail to avoid what happened during the first wave, we risk seeing the scenario repeat itself”, underlines the agri-food expert.
